Should I stay, or should I go: Sex ratio response drives a diverse range (anti-)correlated intra-species behaviours

BethStokes

University of Bath

"Should I stay, or should I go: Sex ratio response drives a diverse range (anti-)correlated intra-species behaviours"

The decision of an individual or group to leave its current environment may be influenced by various factors. These include external or inter-species factors such as the presence of predators or food availability, and also intra-species dynamics like mate searching or the strength of social ties within a group. Understanding the consequences of these behaviours on the population level dynamics is non-trivial. In this study, we explore a stochastic model describing the movement of males and females of a species between localised patches, in which the movement rates are dependent on the sex ratio within the patch. By deriving a system of stochastic differential equations governing the fluctuations in these patches we can model a diverse range of intra-species behaviours driven solely by an individual's response to local sex ratio. We subsequently uncover and explore how different individual behaviours can give rise to large scale (anti-)correlated movements between the sexes.
Additional authors:

---