naa a22 4500 510745016 CHVBK 20180411083042.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s13364-012-0104-y doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s13364-012-0104-y Wahlström Kjell Klippan, Sweden aut Territory defence in male European roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus )—a sexual ornament? [Elektronische Daten] [Kjell Wahlström] The function of male territoriality in roe deer has been debated for decades. There now seems to be consensus that it is a mating tactic. As such, it is highly untypical though. The reasons being, first, males neither conform to the typical ‘resource defence' territoriality model nor to the ‘mate defence' territoriality model; second, territory defence commences several months in advance of the breeding season; and third, the territorial system seems to be very rigid, as practically all studies that have described the social organisation of the species have reported adult males to be territorial. In spite of the general agreement that territoriality is a mating tactic, conclusive evidence on which selective forces are responsible for the prevalent pattern is still lacking. In the present paper, it is suggested that territorial defence serves as a sexual ornament, i.e. ‘cleanness' of other males on the territory, in combination with size of the ‘clean' area, and tenure length are parameters used by females to estimate male phenotypic quality. The hypothesis generates at least four predictions, and available data provide support. It is concluded that although a firm test of the hypothesis remains to be undertaken, existing data support this, just as well as any other, explanatory model and therefore it should be taken into consideration. Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża, Poland, 2012 Roe deer nationallicence Territoriality nationallicence Sexual ornament nationallicence Sexual selection nationallicence Acta Theriologica Springer-Verlag 58/3(2013-07-01), 325-328 0001-7051 58:3<325 2013 58 13364 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-012-0104-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 brief-communication jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-012-0104-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Wahlström Kjell Klippan, Sweden aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Acta Theriologica Springer-Verlag 58/3(2013-07-01), 325-328 0001-7051 58:3<325 2013 58 13364 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer