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Abstract

During natal dispersal, i.e. an individual’s movement from its natal home range to its first breeding home range, the settlement in a post-dispersal home range may be influenced by an individual’s condition, i.e. its phenotype or its internal state, and/or by an individual’s natal context, i.e. the environment within its natal home range. Inter-individual variability during settlement in a post-dispersal home range has strong consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics and gene flow. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying variability in settlement during dispersal is thus of primary interest. We focused on the temporal process of post-dispersal home range construction (e.g. temporal variation in home range’s size and habitat composition during home range’s construction) in juvenile roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) living in a heterogeneous landscape and monitored by GPS collars. Our aim was to assess inter-individual variability in the temporal construction process of the post-dispersal home range. We expected a natal disperser’s condition such as its body mass and/or a natal disperser’s natal context such as the features of its natal home range (e.g. size, proportion of woodland, habitat diversity) to influence the temporal process of post-dispersal home range construction. First, we described a gradual construction of the post-dispersal home range. Second, we showed that natal dispersers constructed their post-dispersal home range differently depending on their condition: the size of the post-dispersal home range increased with increasing individual body mass. Finally we highlighted the influence of an individual’s natal context on the temporal construction process of the post-dispersal home range. Contrary to copse-born individuals, forest-born individuals seemed to first settle in a post-dispersal home range highly similar to their natal home range and seemed to explore progressively new habitats during the construction of their post-dispersal home range. Our study revealed that the settlement in a post-dispersal home range is highly dependent on an individual’s condition and natal context. In further studies, we propose to assess the influence of individual personality on the construction process of the post-dispersal home range.