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Territory structure of the Robin Erithacus rubecula outside the breeding season
Author(s) -
JOHNSTONE IAN
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ibis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1474-919X
pISSN - 0019-1019
DOI - 10.1111/j.1474-919x.1998.tb04385.x
Subject(s) - polygon (computer graphics) , geography , range (aeronautics) , sampling (signal processing) , ecology , physical geography , biology , computer science , telecommunications , materials science , filter (signal processing) , frame (networking) , composite material , computer vision
On the basis of radio‐tracking data from 51 individuals, the space use of Robins Erithacus rubecula outside the breeding season was non‐uniform and multinuclear. On average, territorial Robins spent 78% of their time in one or more resource patches represented by bushes, which accounted for only 1% of a convex polygon encompassing each range. A suite of range polygons was developed to quantify range structure. One of these polygons showed similar size to, and high overlap with, defended‐area polygons and so was a good estimate of territory. In addition, the area of bushes in each polygon suggested Robins occupied constant resource territories. There was undefended neutral ground between territories, which, although seldom visited, was crossed to achieve intrusions. Over the short term (days), Robins showed high fidelity to the resource patches they defended. Over the longer term (months), most individuals showed some degree of range shift. It is concluded that if the information concerning territories is to be maximized, empirically derived sampling protocols should be used when measuring territory parameters.