A Sequential-Arrivals Model of Territory Acquisition

✍ Scribed by M. Broom; C. Cannings; G.T. Vickers

• Book ID: 102613566
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 322 KB
• Volume: 189
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.1997.0519

✦ Synopsis

Birds arrive sequentially at their breeding ground where the nest sites vary in value (measured by reproductive success). Each bird must either choose a vacant site or challenge an occupier for its site. In the latter case we assume the occupier to be the more likely winner. The loser of the contest incurs a cost and must go to a vacant site. The rational strategy for such a contest is found. There is a threshold phenomenon; early arrivals occupy vacant sites, late arrivals fight. This result is intuitively reasonable, but the sequence of sites chosen is complex. A recursive method for specifying the solution is described and applied explicitly to some illustrative cases.Copyright 1997 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1997 Academic Press Limited