Survival and reproduction of resident and immigrant female root voles (Microtus oeconomus)

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Abstract
Many spatially explicit population models assume that residents and immigrants have equal vital rates (survival and reproduction). We tested this assumption by using root vole (Microtus oeconomus) populations in an experimental setting where habitat patches were embedded in an uninhabitable transition habitat. Place of birth and matrilineal relations were known for all animals in 12 different populations. Females were classified as residents or immigrants depending on whether they stayed and reproduced in their natal patch or settled and reproduced in a foreign patch. We compared survival probabilities, derived from the Jolly-Seber-Cormack model, and reproductive parameters between resident and immigrant root vole females. We found no difference between residents and immigrants for any of the parameters examined. Nor did we find any significant difference in net reproductive rate (R0) derived from Leslie models utilizing estimated demographic parameters for residents and immigrants. We conclude that the assumption of equal vital rates may be justified, at least at the spatial scale considered in this study.