Female territoriality in small rodents: Interrelations with local population persistence

Ecology and social behavior of the midday gerbil Meriones meridianus: Insights from long-term research in the wild and seminatural environments

“…Some theoretical models [66,67] predict the relationships between the spatial distribution of food resources, spacing patterns, population density, and mating systems. As for midday gerbils, during the breeding season they form relatively stable multi-male-multi-female associations in their natural populations (see below) irrespective of the distribution of food resources [4] , and thus multiple mates are available for both males and females, and promiscuity results, like in some Clethrionomys (= Myodes) or Microtus species [11,66] . Unlike some other rodent species [67] , the spacing patterns of midday gerbils are not dependent on population densities (see below).…”

“…Besides, stable aggregations of males in the vicinity of ranges of receptive females were found (Figure 1, A), so that male ranges overlapped each other and with female ranges to a great extent. As a result, multi-malemulti-female breeding colonies were formed, like, for example, in Myodes (= Clethrionomys) glareolus [11] or Gerbillus dasyurus [12] . Within the study plot of 1 ha (Figure 1), two breeding colonies can be distinguished: one consisting of six males and seven females, and the other consisting of seven males and four females.…”

“…The subfamily Gerbillinae includes about 110 species [7] , but detailed data on population ecology and social behavior have been collected for only a dozen species. Some species are essentially solitary, like Gerbillus perpallidus [8] and Psammomys obesus [9,10] ; others are gregarious, with the formation of relatively stable multi-male-multi-female associations (called breeding colonies; [11] ), like in Gerbillus dasyurus [12,13] , Meriones meridianus [4,14] , Meriones hurrianae [15][16][17][18] , Tatera indica [19,20] , Taterillus pygargus [21] ; for a small number of species, a family-group lifestyle is characteristic, like in Meriones unguiculatus [4,5,22] , M. libycus [4,[23][24][25][26] or Rhombomys opimus [27][28][29] . Diurnal species, like Meriones unguiculatus, M. libycus, Psammomys obesus and Rhombomys opimus are relatively well studied.…”