SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN SPATIOTEMPORAL INTERACTION AMONG BADGERS

I tested the following hypotheses of territorial polygyny on badgers ( Taxidea taxus: Carnivora; Mustelidae): Competition among adult females for food should result in intrasexual territoriality, while male comp etition for females should result in larger territories that encompass multiple female territories. The sagebrush-grassland study area (Wyom ing, USA) contained a depauperate terrestrial fauna with a dense badge r population preying on high densities of ground squirrels (Spermophil us armatus). Implant telemetry generated locations for analysis of hom e range and spatio-temporal interaction. During the summer breeding se ason males doubled movement rates and nearly tripled home range areas to overlap those of females. Before and after the breeding season, mal es reduced their home ranges to sizes nearer those of stable female ra nges (($) over bar x = 2.82 km(2)). Unexpectedly, home range overlap b etween males and females was no different than intrasexual overlap. Ho wever, analysis of spatio-temporal interaction revealed that females s patially avoided one another, while males were spatially and temporall y attracted to one another, similar to that of male-female interaction s. Presumably, olfactory mechanisms allow resource tracking and lagged communication. Male-male territoriality was not viable, most likely b ecause the high density of badgers, combined with the severely male-bi ased sex ratio (1.75:1), effectively increased intruder pressure - as a resource, receptive females were too mobile and spatially unpredicta ble within their home ranges. Consequently, males monitored and search ed widely for relatively scarce females during the breeding season wit h the effect of attracting each other. Male mobility, home range size, and possibly aggression increased with age, suggesting age-related br eeding tactics, although dominance could only be surmised. This and ot her studies suggest how the spatial, temporal, and dominance component s of carnivore resource partitioning and sociality will be understood better by unraveling the interplay of olfactory processes, attributes of disparate resources (e.g., food vs. females), seasonality, and popu lation density and age-sex structure.