Animal Space Use

In the real world, animals typically tend to congregate at the landscape scale, even when they show repellence at finer scales (territorial behaviour). In contrast, one of the basic assumptions of the vast majority of mathematical population models is independent space use by individuals. In other words, it is assumed that the individuals do not show conspecific attraction but adhere to “full mixing” from independent space use. A strange assumption, indeed! Using the part of the Parallel processing theory (PP) that was summarized in Part I and Part II it is a simple statistical exercise to test if a given population’s dispersion obeys the full mixing assumption (the Paradigm); or alternatively, indicating a positive feedback tendency from PP-compliant space use (the Zoomer model). The concept of conspecific attraction is verified among many species and taxa of animals. For example, lizards prefer to settle near conspecifics, even when unoccupied habitat is available nearby (Stamps 1

I briefly mentioned in Part I that the combination of spatial memory utilization and scale-free space use under the Parallel processing conjecture (PP) may lead to a fractal compliant population dispersion of intrinsic origin, given the additional condition of conspecific attraction. Below I elaborate on heterogeneous population dispersion as expected under the Paradigmatic framework (Markovian process, mean field compliance) and the contrasting PP kind of space use. In particular, one may find that two locations with different population density under the PP condition may reveal similar intensity of space use! Under the Paradigm such a result will appear paradoxical. Under the PP framework (the MRW and the Zoomer model) the paradox is resolved. Before switching to empirical results, consider the following crucial question for ecological theory of space use. What is the driving force behind the typical pattern of a shifting mosaic of population abundance over a range of spatial scale

Animal survival requires some kind of intraspecific cohesion (“population glue”); an intrinsically driven tendency to counteract the diffusion effect from free dispersal. Populations of most species live in an open environment. Thus, without some kind of behavioural capacity to continuously or periodically seek and maintain contact with conspecifics only the most extreme and bizarre kind of environmental constraint would be required for the species’ long term survival. Despite the general agreement on this basic requirement, ecological models for individual movement and population dynamics have for a century maintained a different paradigm, a stubborn assumption that the animals follow the basic principles of mechanistic (Markovian) movement at the individual level and diffusion-advection laws at the population level. Fueled by empirical results and – in my view – common sense the Paradigm has from some researchers come under attack for many years, but mostly in vain. Ecological models