Natal dispersal of juvenile arctic ground squirrels in the boreal forest

Abstract

Natal dispersal is assumed to be costly because of the risk of mortality, yet rarely are movement patterns and survival of dispersers observed directly. We determined the fates and dispersal distances of 150 radio-collared juvenile arctic ground squirrels from 1993 to 1995 at Kluane, Yukon Territory, Canada (61°N, 138°W). We tested the hypothesis that dispersal has a high mortality cost, and we also attempted to distinguish among three hypotheses to explain natal dispersal: competition for mates, competition for resources, and inbreeding avoidance. Juveniles were radio-collared at emergence from the natal burrow on five 9-ha grids nested within larger (1 km2) experimental manipulations: two controls, a predator exclosure, a food-supplemented grid, and a predator exclosure + food grid. In all years and on all areas, dispersing juveniles were more likely to die than philopatric squirrels, and the risk of mortality increased with distance from the natal burrow for both sexes. Overall, survival of philopatric squirrels was 73%, whereas survival of dispersing squirrels ranged from a maximum of 40% to a minimum of 25%. Juvenile females were strongly philopatric independent of population density, except on the predator exclosure + food grid in 1995, where population density was extremely high and resources other than food were probably limiting. Resource competition may explain patterns of philopatry and dispersal in female arctic ground squirrels. Juvenile males moved farther from their natal site than females and more of them died. Males also had a strong tendency to disperse that was independent of food availability or population density, which suggests that male arctic ground squirrels ultimately may disperse to avoid either inbreeding with female relatives or intrasexual competition for mates.