Relationships between Spatial Biology and Physiological Ecology in the Gopher Tortoise, .

AbstractThe overlap between spatial and physiological ecology is generally understudied, yet both fields are fundamentally related in assessing how individuals balance limited resources. Herein, we quantified the relationships between spatial ecology using two parameters of home range (annual home range area and number of burrows used in 1 yr) and four measures of physiology that integrate stress and immunity (baseline plasma corticosterone [CORT] concentration, plasma lactate concentration, heterophil-to-lymphocyte [H∶L] ratio, and bactericidal ability [BA]) in a wild free-ranging population of the gopher tortoise () to test the hypothesis that space usage is correlated with physiological state. We also used structural equation models (SEMs) to test for causative relationships between the spatial and physiological parameters.