Abstract
Lek-breeding species are characterized by a negative association between territorial resource availability and male mating success; however, the impact of resources on the overall distribution patterns of the two sexes in lek systems is not clear. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has recently emerged as a powerful proxy measure for primary productivity, allowing the links between the distributions of animals and resources to be explored. Using NDVI at four spatial resolutions, we here investigate how the distribution of the two sexes in a lek-breeding population of topi antelopes relates to resource abundance before and during the rut. We found that in the dry season preceding the rut, topi density correlated positively with NDVI at the large, but not the fine, scale. This suggests that before the rut, when resources were relatively scant, topi preferred pastures where green grass was widely abundant. The pattern was less pronounced in males, suggesting that the need for territorial attendance prevents males from tracking resources as freely as females do. During the rut, which occurs in the wet season, both male and female densities correlated negatively with NDVI at the fine scale. At this time, resources were generally plentiful and the results suggest that, rather than by resource maximization, distribution during the rut was determined by benefits of aggregating on relatively resource-poor leks for mating, and possibly antipredator, purposes. At the large scale, no correlation between density and NDVI was found during the rut in either sex, which can be explained by leks covering areas too small to be reflected at this resolution. The study illustrates that when investigating spatial organization, it is important: (1) to choose the appropriate analytic scale, and (2) to consider behavioural as well as strictly ecological factors.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Paul E. Loth and two anonymous reviewers for their comments, to Mada Hotels for logistic support, and to the Ministry of Science and Technology in Kenya, Narok County Council, the Senior Warden of Masai Mara National Reserve and Kenya Wildlife Service for permission to do field work. This research was supported by the Danish Research Agency and a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 6th European Community Framework Programme to Jakob Bro-Jørgensen.
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Communicated by Roland Brandl.
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Bro-Jørgensen, J., Brown, M.E. & Pettorelli, N. Using the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to explain ranging patterns in a lek-breeding antelope: the importance of scale. Oecologia 158, 177–182 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1121-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1121-z