ANALYSIS OF A MODEL OF GROUP TERRITORIALITY BASED ON THE RESOURCE DISPERSION HYPOTHESIS

The resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH), which states that "groups may develop where resources are dispersed such that the smallest economically defensible territory for a pair ... can also sustain additional animals", has been proposed by Macdonald (1983, Nature, Lond.301, 379-384.) as a possible explanation for the formation of social groups in territorial animals. An explicit model was put forward by Carr & Macdonald (1986, Anim. Behav.34, 1540-1549). Our paper analyses their model, and shows that the model predicts that groups larger than a pair, formed in accordance with the RDH, will occur only for a restricted range of parameters. In addition, the independence of territory size and group size, which Carr & Macdonald assumed to follow from their model, only occurs in the particular case of "very rich" patches. A more tractable generalization of the model is briefly discussed. © 1991 Academic Press Limited.