Article: Territory size and shape in fire ants: a model based on neighborhood interactions.

INTRODUCTION

Animals that defend foraging territories often show considerable intraspecific variation in territory area. Ecologists have long been interested in explaining this variation and in predicting how the sizes or shapes of territories differ among individuals (Covich 1976, Carpenter 1987). Within a population, variation in territory area contributes to the unequal division of limiting resources, which may in turn affect the dynamics or stability of animal numbers (e.g., Lomnicki 1988). Furthermore, the processes determining territory area may shed light on decision making by competing animals.

In many territorial species, territories are molded by ...

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