title: How memory of direct animal interactions can lead to territorial pattern formation.
abstract: Mechanistic home range analysis (MHRA) is a highly effective tool for understanding spacing patterns of animal populations. It has hitherto focused on populations where animals defend their territories by communicating indirectly, e.g. via scent marks. However, many animal populations defend their territories using direct interactions, such as ritualized aggression. To enable application of MHRA to such populations, we construct a model of direct territorial interactions, using linear stability analysis and energy methods to understand when territorial patterns may form. We show that spatial memory of past interactions is vital for pattern formation, as is memory of 'safe' places, where the animal has visited but not suffered recent territorial encounters. Additionally, the spatial range over which animals make decisions to move is key to understanding the size and shape of their resulting territories. Analysis using energy methods, on a simplified version of our system, shows that stability in the nonlinear system corresponds well to predictions of linear analysis. We also uncover a hysteresis in the process of territory formation, so that formation may depend crucially on initial space-use. Our analysis, in one dimension and two dimensions, provides mathematical groundwork required for extending MHRA to situations where territories are defended by direct encounters.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK j.potts@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jonathan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Potts
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mathematical Biology, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, 632 CAB, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013731:Territoriality
keywords: mathematical ecology; partial differential equations; pattern formation; ritualized aggression; territoriality