Agonistic behaviour and dominance in stoats (Mustela erminea L.)

Behavioural mechanisms underlying distribution in a stoat (Mustela erminea) population were examined experimentally in an enclosure simulating natural habitats with living prey. Agonistic behaviours, displayed by individual stoats of different sex and age while being tested in pairs in various combinations were recorded. Dominance relationships between different categories of stoats (femalefemale, adult and juvenile male male) were examined, as was social dominance between individual stoats of the same sex. In further experiments designed to examine the influence of establishment on the social dominance, the behaviour of established introduced animals was observed.