Home…Sweet Home?

Wherever we go, there’s always a home for us to come back to. We return because it’s what we’re use to and where we feel most comfortable within our surroundings. We’re less likely to encounter danger or starvation. But is this the case for animals as well? According to a recent article, researchers have been conducting experiments in terms of understanding how animals move about in their habitats. Although animals are free to roam as they wish in the wild, they still stay close to a certain area. This area is known as their “home range.”

Luca Börger and several of his colleagues has spent four years tracking the movement of one particular species: the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). The monitoring took place in Maremma Regional Park in southern Tuscany. They found that an animal’s home range stems from the complexity of interactions between the animal’s behavior and it’s environment. An animal’s response to certain changes plays an important role in survival. The climate and day length also plays a part in the movement of the animals. During the summer, the deer will tend to have a smaller home range than that of it if it was during the fall or winter. More than one deer in general can share a home range, yet they may also be occupied individually as well depending on where it is. During the winter, more ground is covered in order for the deer to forage for food since everything is covered by snow. They must move constantly to a variety of places to obtain necessary amounts of food to survive. Thus their home range is broadened. Their home range narrows during the summer since food is more available due to the growth of many plants and vegetation. However, if at a particular time in a season there is less rain or more substantial heat than usual, animals will vary from wider ranges to even smaller ones. If the home range is well suited, then there would no need for the deer to venture elsewhere. If the area they occupied becomes uninhabitable, meaning there is a shortage of food or a high profusion of predators, it will then find an alternative range to settle in. The area of the home range is determined by the scarcity of food in that particular area and how far the deer is willing to travel to search for it.

In order to keep track of the behavior and movements of the roe deer, a selected amount were marked with colored collars containing a radio tap and whipped antenna. This method can be helpful in testing future populations and species while also comparing the distinctions amongst how different animals may react to climate change in their given home ranges. In a sense, animals are just like us. All they want is to be able to feel comfortable in the own home ranges while living comfortably with what’s around them.

Posted by HC (5)