Impact of Population Density on Group Size
摘要
Social ungulates are very sensitive to the population density and enlarge their group sizes in almost linear manner, while solitary and territorial ungulate species generally do not have such dependence. The mean group size of goitered gazelles increases with population density in a non-linear and abrupt way, and significant responses of group sizes are found only for populations with more than a sevenfold difference in population density. Population density does not have impact on the group class frequency at all. Such a partial density dependent response of goitered gazelle populations may be identified as intermediate—between social-dwelling ungulate species and solitary and territorial ungulate species. However, goitered gazelle population responses to increasing density likely are more close to those found in solitary ungulate species than that found in social ungulates.