title: Consequences of animal interactions on their dynamics: emergence of home ranges and territoriality.
abstract: Animal spacing has important implications for population abundance, species demography and the environment. Mechanisms underlying spatial segregation have their roots in the characteristics of the animals, their mutual interaction and their response, collective as well as individual, to environmental variables. This review describes how the combination of these factors shapes the patterns we observe and presents a practical, usable framework for the analysis of movement data in confined spaces. The basis of the framework is the theory of interacting random walks and the mathematical description of out-of-equilibrium systems. Although our focus is on modelling and interpreting animal home ranges and territories in vertebrates, we believe further studies on invertebrates may also help to answer questions and resolve unanswered puzzles that are still inaccessible to experimental investigation in vertebrate species.
authors.affiliation: Bristol Centre for Complexity Sciences, Department of Engineering Mathematics and School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB UK.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giuggioli
authors.affiliation: Consortium of the Americas for Interdisciplinary Science and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131 New Mexico USA.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Kenkre
keywords: Animal spacing; Confinement; Interacting random walks; Movement ecology