Habitat selection by dispersing brush mice (Peromyscus boylii)

Natal dispersal is a process during which young animals leave their natal home range, explore surrounding habitats and territories, and settle in a new home range. Very little is known about how animals respond to the different habitat types they encounter during dispersal, or how those responses might be shaped during development. Behavioral processes likely impact the interactions of dispersers with the landscape that they move through. Natal habitat preference induction (NHPI) is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon which occurs when early experience in a habitat type increases the chances that dispersers will later settle in their natal habitat type. I investigated NHPI in brush mice (Peromyscus boylii), a small mammal abundant in adjoining woodland and chaparral habitat types in northern California. Individuals explored and settled within their natal habitat type more frequently than expected based on natal habitat type availability, observations which support the predictions of NHPI. These results suggest that the dispersal process may be influenced by variation in habitat preferences due to experience, which may in turn affect the population and metapopulation dynamics of animals in heterogeneous landscapes.