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Do large mammals disperse like small mammals?

  • Chapter
Animal Dispersal

Abstract

This chapter asks the question: does dispersal in large mammals differ in principle from that described in small mammals? The subject has received limited treatment in carnivores (Pusey and Packer, 1987) and primates (Chapter 11), and with a few exceptions (McCullough, 1985) is largely neglected in ungulates. Since these species are visible and well described, one would have expected the dispersal phenomenon to be thoroughly documented; yet it is not. I define ‘dispersal’ as one-way movement with no predetermined direction in the population as a whole (Sinclair, 1986a). This is distinct from ‘emigration’, which is a directional one-way movement seen most commonly in birds breeding in temporary habitats; and also distinct from ‘migration’, which is a regular round trip movement within the life-span of the individual (see Chapter 1 for alternative definitions).

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Authors
  1. A. R. E. Sinclair
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Oslo, Norway

    Nils Chr. Stenseth

  2. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, USA

    William Z. Lidicker Jr

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Sinclair, A.R.E. (1992). Do large mammals disperse like small mammals?. In: Stenseth, N.C., Lidicker, W.Z. (eds) Animal Dispersal. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2338-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2338-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5033-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-2338-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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