The metabolic performance predicts home range size of bank voles: a support for the behavioral–bioenergetics theory

Abstract

The pace-of-life syndrome describes covariation between life-history, behavioral and physiological traits; while, the emerging behavioral–bioenergetics theory proposes mechanistic links between those traits in a spatial–ecological context. However, little is known about the association between the limits to metabolic rate and spatial performance (i.e., mobility, home range size) in free-living individuals. Here we show, for the first time at the intra-specific level, that mobility traits increased with the aerobic exercise capacity ($\dot{V}$O₂max) in a wild rodent, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus): $\dot{V}$O₂max affected directly the movement intensity, which in turn affected home ranges. The results show that evolution of high $\dot{V}$O₂max could be driven by selection for spatial performance traits, and corroborate one of the key assumptions of the behavioral–bioenergetics theory. However, the minimum maintenance metabolism, measured as the basal metabolic rate (BMR), was not correlated with movement intensity, and the direction of the BMR–home range correlation tended to change with age of the voles. The latter result indicates that testing the theory will be particularly challenging.