Seasonal changes in reproductive tolerance, spacing, and social organization in meadow voles: A microtine model

Abstract

Current theory and supporting data regarding population regulation and cycling in microtine rodents needs to be reviewed in light of a new, season-sensitive model of social behavior for meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus. The finding of a clear social imperative among meadow voles during most of the fall, winter and spring conflicts with the prediction of high levels of social intolerance in the higher density populations commonly existing late in the year. The general rarity of adult dispersal, except during periods of declining densityin winter and early spring, and the contact-seeking nature of this dispersal,are generally contradictory to predictions based on "intrinsic' theories. Finally,published data on meadow vole reproduction, recruitment and dispersal, and hence demography, are probably biased as a result of effects produced by the spread of rodent pheromones by investigators, prolonged entrapment of individual voles, and inappropriate behavioral measures in the field. © 1987 by the American Society of Zoologists.