Journal Article

Landscape structure and population density affect intraspecific aggression in beavers

Aparicio Estalella, Clàudia, Windels, Steve K., Mayer, Martin, Rosell, Frank N.

2020

Overview

Intraspecific competition plays an important role for territory acquisition and occupancy, in turn affecting individual fitness. Thus, understanding the drivers of intraspecific aggression can increase our understanding of population dynamics. Here, we investigated intraspecific aggression in Eurasian (Castor fiber) and North American (Castor canadensis) beavers that are both monogamous, territorial mammals. Combined, we examined tail scars from >1,000 beavers (>2,000 capture events) as part of two long‐term studies in Norway and the USA. We investigated the influence of landscape structure, population density, sex, age, and (for Eurasian beavers only) social status and group size on the number of tail scars caused by conspecifics. The number of tail scars was affected by population density in well‐connected landscape types (large lakes and rivers), but not in more isolated areas (ponds), where individuals generally had fewer tail scars. Further, the relationship of population density was not linear. In the North American beaver population occurring in large lakes, intraspecific aggression increased with population density. Conversely, in the saturated Eurasian beaver population, intraspecific aggression was in a negative relationship with population density (except at the highest densities), likely due to inverse density‐dependent intruder pressure via dispersers. Our findings emphasize that population density can affect intraspecific aggression depending on landscape structure, which might have important consequences for local patterns of dispersal, mate change, and territory occupancy, all of which can affect population dynamics. We investigated intraspecific aggression in beavers using tail scars from >1,000 individuals. The number of tail scars was affected by population density in well‐connected landscape types (large lakes and rivers), but not in more isolated areas (ponds), where individuals generally had fewer tail scars. Our findings emphasize that population density can affect intraspecific aggression depending on landscape structure, which might have important consequences for local patterns of dispersal, mate change, and territory occupancy, all of which can affect population dynamics.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Age / Age composition / Aggression / Aggressiveness / Animal behavior / Animal reproduction / Aquatic mammals / Beavers / Castor canadensis / Castor fiber / Conspecifics / Dispersal / Dispersion / Group size / intraspecific aggression / Lakes / Landscape / Monogamy / Occupancy / Original Research / Population density / Population dynamics / Pressure dependence / Rivers / Scars / Social interactions / Subordinates / tail scars / Tails / territoriality / Territory