Territoriality: Costs and conditions

The decision to take and/or keep a resource is a function of:Cost is in resource defense

•Personal damage and energy loss•Less time spent in predator vigilance•Lost foraging time

Benefits:•Consistently more and better food•Less effort to maintain a territory then to acquire one.

Yarrows Spiny Lizard:•Territoriality is seasonal •Controlled by hormone levels

Yarrows Spiny Lizard: Elevated Testosterone increases:•General activity levels•Defensive posturing

Yarrows Spiny Lizard: Elevated Testosterone in non territorial seasons decreased:

•Feeding time/effectiveness•Lifespan due to starvation

•Controls suffered too•Feeding treated animals corrected for effects

Territoriality benefit: More food

Territoriality benefit: More food =

•Healthier males •Able to leave wintering grounds sooner•Establish ownership of resources at mating grounds sooner

Territoriality: Costs vs benefit:

Conditional strategies:•Male golden winged sunbirds will defend flower patches but only if there is a net caloric gain in doing so.

Costs per/hour:Foraging = 1000 caloriesResting = 400 caloriesDefense = 2000 calories

Territoriality: When to defend

The adaptive value of allowing satellites in your territory

Pied wagtails are conditionally territorial and on occasion will defend rich territories in owner-satellite teams.

King of the hill: Why its easier to own than to acquire

King of the hill: the Speckled wood butterfly

•Owner always wins territorial conflicts because owning the territory has imparted an advantage: payoff asymetry

•The value of ownership in this case is that sunning spots increases muscle tempurature which enhances flight capability manuravibility.

King of the hill: The more time on top the stronger• Tarantula hawk wasp owners win territorial conflicts but conflict duration increases as a function of time away