Territorial species are often predicted to adhere to an ideal despotic distribution and under-match local food resources, meaning that individuals in high-quality habitat achieve higher fitness than those in low-quality habitat. However, conditions such as high density, territory compression, and frequent territorial disputes in high-quality habitat are expected to cause habitat quality to decline as population density increases and, instead, promote resource matching. We studied a highly human-subsidized and under-matched population of Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) to determine how under-matching is maintained despite high densities, compressed territories, and frequent agonistic behaviors, which should promote resource matching. We examined the distribution of fitness among individuals in high-quality, subsidized habitat, by categorizing jays into dominance classes and characterizing individual consumption of human food, body condition, fecundity, and core area size and spatial distribution. Individuals of all dominance classes consumed similar amounts of human food and had similar body condition and fecundity. However, the most dominant individuals maintained smaller core areas that had greater overlap with subsidized habitat than those of subordinates. Thus, we found that (1) jays attain high densities in subsidized areas because dominant individuals do not exclude subordinates from human food subsidies and (2) jay densities do not reach the level necessary to facilitate resource matching because dominant individuals monopolize space in subsidized areas. Our results suggest that human-modified landscapes may decouple dominance from fitness and that incomplete exclusion of subordinates may be a common mechanism underpinning high densities and creating source populations of synanthropic species in subsidized environments.

中文翻译：

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失败的暴君和受补贴物种的公平分配

通常预测地域物种会坚持理想的专制分布和与当地食物资源不匹配的情况，这意味着高质量栖息地的个体比低质量栖息地的个体获得更高的适应度。然而，高质量栖息地的高密度、领土压缩和频繁的领土争端等条件预计会导致栖息地质量随着人口密度的增加而下降，反而会促进资源匹配。我们研究了高度人类补贴和匹配不足的斯特勒松鸦 (Cyanocitta stelleri) 种群，以确定尽​​管高密度、压缩领土和频繁的竞争行为如何保持匹配不足，这应该促进资源匹配。我们检查了高质量、有补贴的栖息地中个体之间的健康分布，通过将松鸦分类为优势等级，并描述人类食物的个体消费、身体状况、繁殖力、核心区域大小和空间分布。所有支配阶层的个体消耗相似数量的人类食物并且具有相似的身体状况和繁殖力。然而，与下属相比，最占优势的个体与受补贴的栖息地有更大的重叠，保持较小的核心区域。因此，我们发现（1）松鸦在补贴地区的密度很高，因为主导个体没有将下属排除在人类食品补贴之外；（2）松鸦密度没有达到促进资源匹配所需的水平，因为优势个体垄断了补贴地区的空间.