Data from: Space partitioning in wild, non-territorial mountain gorillas: the impact of food and neighbours

In territorial species, the distribution of neighbours and food abundance play a crucial role in space use patterns but less is known about how and when neighbours use shared areas in non-territorial species. We investigated space partitioning in 10 groups of wild, non-territorial mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). Using location data, we examined factors influencing daily movement decisions and calculated the per cent overlap of annual kernel home ranges and core areas among neighbours. We found that the probability that a group chose an area was positively influenced by both food availability and the previous use of that area by the group. Additionally, groups reduced their overall utilization of areas previously used by neighbouring groups. Lastly, groups used their core areas more exclusively than their home ranges. In sum, our results show that both foraging needs and avoidance of competition with neighbours determined the gorillas' daily movement decisions, which presumably lead to largely mutually exclusive core areas. Our research suggests that non-territorial species actively avoid neighbours to maintain core area exclusivity. Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of the costs and benefits of non-territoriality.对于领地性物种而言，邻群分布与食物丰度对其空间利用模式起着至关重要的作用，但目前学界对非领地性物种的群体如何、何时利用共享区域的认知仍较为匮乏。本研究以10群野生非领地性山地大猩猩（Gorilla beringei beringei）为研究对象，探究其空间分区行为。研究利用定位数据，分析了影响山地大猩猩每日移动决策的因素，并计算了邻群间年度核素家域（kernel home range）与核心区域的重叠百分比。结果显示，群体选择某一区域的概率，同时受到食物可获得性与该群体此前对该区域利用情况的正向影响。此外，群体整体会减少对邻群此前占用区域的利用程度。最后，相较于家域范围，山地大猩猩对核心区域的利用具有更强的排他性。综上，本研究结果表明，觅食需求与规避邻群竞争共同决定了山地大猩猩的每日移动决策，这一行为推测最终会促使核心区域形成高度排他的分布格局。本研究表明，非领地性物种会主动规避邻群以维持其核心区域的排他性。这些研究结果有助于深化我们对非领地性生存策略的成本与收益的认知。