territoriality

1. The status of a territory.
2. A behavior pattern in animals consisting of the occupation and defense of a territory.

Behavior patterns in which an animal actively defends a space or some other resource. One major advantage of territoriality is that it gives the territory holder exclusive access to the defended resource, which is generally associated with feeding, breeding, or shelter from predators or climatic forces. Feeding and breeding territories can be mobile, such as when an animal defends a newly obtained food source or a temporarily receptive mate. Stationary territories often serve multiple functions and include access to food, a place to rear young, and a refuge site from predators and the elements.

Territoriality can be understood in terms of the benefits and costs accrued to territory holders. Benefits include time saved by foraging in a known area, energy acquired through feeding on territorial resources, reduction in time spent on the lookout for predators, or increase in number of mates attracted and offspring raised. Costs usually involve time and energy expended in patrolling and defending the territorial site, and increased risk of being captured by a predator when engaged in territorial defense.

Because territories usually include resources that are in limited supply, active defense is often necessary. Such defense frequently involves a graded series of behaviors called displays that include threatening gestures such as vocalizations, spreading of wings or gill covers, lifting and presentation of claws, head bobbing, tail and body beating, and finally, direct attack. Direct confrontation can usually be avoided by advertising the location of a territory in a way that allows potential intruders to recognize the boundaries and avoid interactions with the defender. Such advertising may involve odors that are spread with metabolic by-products, such as urine or feces in dogs, cats, or beavers, or produced specifically as territory markers, as in ants. Longer-lasting territorial marks can involve visual signals such as scrapes and rubs, as in deer and bear. See also Chemical ecology; Ethology; Population ecology; Reproductive behavior.

The need by an individual or group to establish and hold an area of land. In animals, territoriality is an urge, fuelled by aggression, to define a territory for mating and food supply. In human beings, on the other hand, it is more an organization of space in order to make sense of it. The individual needs security and identity, and this is shown most clearly in relation to the home, which provides security of mind and body and a relatively threat-free environment. The community requires a suburb or small town with which to associate, providing an identity and the means of communicating that identity. The importance of territory extends to larger units; the reorganization of the counties of Britain always causes distress, and the term is most often associated with nation-states which have the formal power to demarcate and control their borders. See nation.

A term that signifies a connection or limitation with reference to a particular geographic area or country.