Thoughts on Territoriality

[leo_the_pard]

I have often heard that therians have their own attitude towards their own territory, different from humans. But what is behind these words? Comparing your behavior with the behavior of your species is, of course, fascinating, but it is much more important to understand why your species behaves this way and not differently. This, as it seems to me, is the key to understanding yourself and is a very important point, to which I will return more than once in my next articles. In this one, I suggest understanding what is behind the concept of territoriality, how animals perceive it and what it is needed for.

 

In my life, I have had to change dozens of different places of residence, so from the height of my experience I would like to share with you my thoughts and observations on this topic, starting with a short excursion into my biography and trying not to tire you too much. Later you will understand what this is about.

 

I spent the first years of my conscious life in a big city, in the same apartment with my adoptive mother, with whom I had a very strained relationship. The pressure from society didn't add to my comfort either, which is why I often ran away to the familiar forest, but not because I was drawn to nature - there were simply no people there. I spent my time no less comfortably in industrial zones - sometimes there were people there, but the main thing was that there were stray cats. I still adore sparsely populated industrial zones and prefer to work there.

 

As a child, I dreamed of living in the wild in Africa so much that I could not imagine my future life any other way. I literally burned with this dream, imagining in my sleep and in reality how I would live in the wild, where there would be no people. For me, it was a desire for freedom, which I simply confused with the need for security. Once someone told me that, "Freedom is not in Africa, freedom is within you," which at that time I did not take seriously, but now I understand how true these words were.

 

In 2011, one of my friends (he knows who) invited me to go hiking with him. Was I scared to do it? Of course, but not too much. As a child, everything was simpler: leaving my territory where I didn't feel safe was not the same as leaving the territory where I do feel safe now. And having a person nearby whom I trust (who is not territorial or less territorial than me and therefore calm) greatly dulls the feeling of fear. Unfortunately, there are no such people left for me now.

 

And so, having freed myself from the oppression of my adoptive mother and moved to a small town (it was also scary to decide on this, but it helped me a lot that other therians I trusted lived next door to me, for which I will always be grateful to them), I settled in a modest garden house, with an area of ​​only 54 sqft. It was an absolutely tiny house with an equally tiny adjacent plot of land. But, strangely enough, I didn't feel uncomfortable there. Yes, I still wanted to build a very large house, but the small area even had its advantages: at least I didn't have to pay huge heating bills in the winter. And I didn't even have to get up from the table to make coffee.

 

After that, I spent three whole years in emergency mode. I wandered around hostels and rented apartments, changed two countries of residence and returned to Russia, I came to conquer the capital twice without a penny in my pocket, I lived in hostels, slept under the stairs at work, rented rooms, I was homeless for two weeks, sleeping in the forest. I couldn't stay in any one place for more than a few months. My roommates were often criminals: crime, alcohol, drugs, dubious parties and domestic violence - I know all this firsthand. I have been sexually harassed more than once, I have snapped and attacked people twice, I have been evicted, had stones thrown at me, called crazy, stalked and threatened. And sometimes it was I the formal aggressor.

 

I once rented a huge apartment in Kyiv, 2,700 sqft - it was my childhood dream to live in a huge house. What could be better than space, right? It was certainly a great apartment in a townhouse with two bathrooms, a huge living room, expensive repairs and all the imaginable amenities. But for some reason I did not feel comfortable there, I constantly felt like I was not able to control such an area. What if someone breaks into the apartment, and I do not even hear it? This caused anxiety until I simply locked all the rooms with a key, settling in the living room, next to the fridge. All the bedrooms in this apartment were simply empty. Yes, I wanted my territory to be about one or several hundred square miles - that's the size of the African leopard's territory. This was a very naive misconception, due to a lack of understanding of what actually determines the size of an animal's territory.

 

There were some bright spots, though: I rented a place in the center of the capital twice, which was very_ expensive, but I could afford it. I also lived for four months with friends who had a very unhealthy atmosphere in their home - they were very kind to me, but the constant scandals in their family made me feel uncomfortable, so I, as always, ran away to the forest for a day or two. And sometimes for a whole week, coming home only in the morning to wash up and go to work. In the summer, I lived for weeks in my friend's country house and read books there. Yes, those were three years of pure hell, but I don't regret anything; at least I have something to remember.

 

My penultimate place of residence ended in scandal, as always, until I finally moved to a semi-abandoned village 25 miles from the nearest town. But I didn't find peace there either, as I didn't feel comfortable living in the same house with a couple of therians (especially with the owner's wife) and I simply took over an abandoned house next door. There were many abandoned houses in the village, but I chose the smallest and at the same time the coziest. At first, as usual, I was scared, but I got used to it very quickly, made some minor repairs in the house. During my time, the village became completely abandoned, the neighbors left and... I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

My work was three miles from home. I was asked many times to move closer to my place of work due to logistical difficulties. It was also beneficial for me. I tried to do this twice - both times it ended with my colleagues from work starting to come to my new house with their problems, which scared me and made me run back home. Unfortunately, it doesn't occur to the management that although their house formally belongs to them, de facto I live in it, which does not allow them to come there whenever they want. Several times, my colleagues from work came to my old house without asking and were surprised at how inhospitable I was.

 

I still live in this abandoned house now. I found its formal owners and now no one will evict me from here. By human standards, this house looks absolutely terrible both from the outside and from the inside. From the outside, it looks abandoned, I deliberately do not invest a cent in its appearance - this way it is less likely to interest intruders. Inside there is a smell of rotten meat (especially in winter, when I eat a lot of meat) and cat poop, in the corner there is a pile of hay, on which I like to roll, and in general the house reigns in sheer chaos - indeed, it is extremely inhospitable to guests. I will not show it to you so as not to shock you, but it looks more like a predator's enclosure in a zoo. I do not keep it like this on purpose, it is just the most comfortable house for me.

 

The specifics of my work (I am a self-employed electrician) sometimes require me to spend the night at my place of work. I don't care if there is a bed there or not, I can sleep anywhere, in warm clothes, even in the snow in winter. The only condition is that no one is allowed to disturb me outside of working hours with any questions, even the customer. However, I really don't like spending the night at work, preferring to drive an extra 20-50 miles just to sleep at home. Or at least spend the night in the car. However, I am extremely reluctant to take on such orders.

 

From time to time I have to go into town for shopping and every time I am simply scared. It is not so scary when I am already in unfamiliar territory and returning home, but going beyond my territory scares me to the point of trembling. I put off the trip until the last minute until I start to starve. I am a little less scared when I go to town in my car, which I almost always feel uncomfortable behind the wheel of and I prefer to go to town with my work colleagues. This year I lost my job near my home - our farm went bankrupt, but I found a job at another one, much further away. 37 miles from home is quite far. There I rented an office, a small room on the top floor of an abandoned building. Yes, the conditions there are quite Spartan, but I like it there. And the main thing is that to get there I technically don't even have to leave my territory: I go out into the yard, which is my territory, I get into the car, which is my territory, and an hour later I find myself in the office, which I also perceive as my territory (although less mine than my home).

 

This is how I live to this day: my whole life revolves between home, car and office. Familiar people, familiar places, familiar surroundings and fear when I find myself in an unfamiliar area. Now that you know a little about my personal territoriality, let's move on to zoopsychology.

 

 

All predators are territorial to some extent. I don't know about herbivores or animals that make seasonal migrations, but it is true specifically for predators. It is not difficult to understand why territoriality is needed: all living things are driven by three basic needs - survival, dominance and reproduction. Territoriality is one of the forms of realizing the first need. In its territory, an animal feels safe and this is what makes this or that territory its own.

 

But this also has its side effect: going beyond its territory is accompanied by fear and stress, which is clearly visible in videos about the reintroduction of wild animals from zoos, where they are released into the wild. Finding themselves in an unfamiliar environment, they are not at all happy about freedom, they are scared and the animal's first reaction is to hide and lie low, then begin to carefully explore the new environment in order to settle in and make this territory its own. In this, perhaps, there is no fundamental difference at all between different types of wild predators. Same applies even to domestic cats.

 

But the situation is different with tame wild predators. Here is an example of the behavior of a tame leopard in an unfamiliar area with its handlers: the handlers are calm and the cat is also calm. We usually associate such behavior with dogs, but with good socialization, wild cats also exhibit it; it's just that people usually don't purposefully socialize domestic cats. At the same time, it is well known that even the most good-natured dog, for example, if it is territorial enough, can behave aggressively at home and friendly outside it. This is the very territoriality: the need for security, realized through the desire to drive away an uninvited guest from the territory occupied by animal itself.

 

In neutral territory, a dog (unless it is specially trained) by default has no need to drive away a guest; in a conflict situation, it is more likely to retreat itself. With wild cats, the situation is most likely similar: it will bite off your limb without hesitation if you stick it through the bars of the cage in which the animal is kept. But it is unlikely to behave the same way outside the cage. After all, sticking a limb into a cage with a predator is an invasion of its territory, the animal feels as danger and shows aggression, but meeting a stranger on foreign territory is no longer the same case.

 

Watching wild animals kept as pets is very interesting and allows you to clearly see how the behavior of animals changes in different habitats. Here is another example of how a tame leopard meets strangers on her territory (here, by the way, you can clearly see the difference between the average cat and the average dog). Her behavior is literally a copy of how I behaved as a child when guests came to our apartment. My first reaction was displeasure: wariness, a desire to hide and hiss. The first thing I noticed was the smell of strangers, which made me feel uncomfortable and wanted to get rid of as quickly as possible, drowning it out with my own (well, maybe not as literally as in the video). My behavior has not changed much now. If I were a male (they are usually more assertive and tend to protect their territory) I would probably meet uninvited guests with a gun in my hands. But I react to uninvited guests the same way as an ordinary female leopard - I get scared and want to hide. I have to make an effort to go to the door and ask, "Who's there?"

 

As for the size of the territory. There is a common misconception that if in the wild an animal's territory is many hundreds of square miles, then in captivity it should be the same for a full life. This is, of course, not true. The size of the territory is inversely proportional to the density of the available food supply, the more food - the less territory is needed for survival. All zoos that practice such a thing as "natural enclosure" have encountered this problem: if you make an enclosure huge, but feed the animals in the same place, for some reason they stay to live near the feeder, not wanting to explore this huge territory. To get around this problem, zoo workers have to resort to various tricks, for example, feeding the animals in different places each time. Yes, too small a territory and a sedentary lifestyle can lead to health problems - but that's another side of the issue.

 

Exactly the same thing works with people: the main problem with open worlds in video games is that the average player is by default not at all interested in exploring a huge and diverse game world. Therefore, it is necessary to add a long storyline to the game to encourage the player to visit different corners of the game world, along the way saturating it with all sorts of side activities and points of interest. There are no fundamental differences with people - all living things are equally lazy.

 

This works even with wild animals living in their natural habitat: if you feed them, they will stay close to your house and will not go far from it - why go away from the place where they are fed? Another confirmation of this is the behavior of our domestic cats. All our cats have access to the street, but if the neighbors' cats are poorly fed and are forced to get food by hunting rodents, they go quite far from the house (and not always return). My cats are fed just fine and do not go further than 50 yards from my house.

 

A separate topic that I would like to touch on is habitat. There is a common opinion that an animal feels best in its natural habitat. But this is nothing more than a stereotype. I mean, it is fine if your area is in the wilderness and you are comfortable there, but it does not have to be there to be comfortable for you. The desire to divide everything in the world into artificial and natural is a purely human trait; animals do not think in such categories. And, for heaven's sake, stop claiming that animals have some kind of "connection with nature" - it is no more than anthropomorphism. Animals are attached to their territory, whether it is in the wild, in a zoo enclosure or at home - the animal does not care. From the animal's point of view, all this is just a specific habitat to which it needs to somehow adapt. After all, if wild predators were strictly tied to a certain type of terrain, they would never have settled all over the globe.

 

However, there are nuances: for an animal, the habitat in which it grew up is the most familiar and comfortable. Therefore, the phrase "once a wolf always a wolf" will be true for a wolf that grew up in the forest, but not for one that grew up in captivity. And, yes, for the habitat to be comfortable for an animal, it must ensure the satisfaction of its species-specific needs. Which, however, are not constant and change when the animal grows in a different habitat, so the behavior of animal populations of the same species living in different conditions may differ. The most striking example of this are the same leopards, which usually avoid water, but living in an area with a small amount of land prey, they switch to fishing.

 

For an animal, it makes no difference in what habitat its territory will be located, if this environment is in principle suitable for survival and is able to provide its basic needs. If not, the animal either dies or stops reproducing, since the stimulus for reproduction (which can be said to be the strongest and most fundamental) is suppressed in the animal. It is no coincidence that the fact of reproduction in a zoo environment is considered the main indicator of animal welfare.

 

Territoriality itself is largely determined genetically: some species (and even some individuals) are more territorial from the start, some less. A clear example of this is different breeds of dogs: guard dogs have a pronounced territoriality, while hunting dogs, on the contrary, because due to the nature of their work, they constantly have to leave the boundaries of their territory. Hunting dogs, on average, tend to behave friendly towards strangers, while guard dogs, which can be extremely aggressive towards strangers, are more likely to do so. For centuries, breeders have been deliberately breeding dogs with a given territoriality; yes, dog breeds were bred artificially, but selection was carried out precisely at the genetic level.

 

And, as usual, what about people? Well, basically it's the same. Some people are more territorial, others less. Of course, such a thing as culture also influences human behavior - in Central Asia, where I come from, people are very hospitable, in the West - less. But if you look at the average, their territoriality manifests itself in everyday situations: keeping a distance in a queue, the concept of personal space, my home is my castle - all this goes back to the same territoriality. Even if you look at how passengers are seated on public transport: first people take single seats, then double seats one by one (except for those traveling in a group), and only then do those who did not have enough single seats sit down next to them. And some (like me) even prefer to stand to the side, just not to sit next to strangers.

 

Now that we've figured out how this all works, let's get back to where we started:

 

1. My territory is a place where I feel safe - this is the very basis of territoriality;
2. My surroundings should be familiar and predictable, my territory needs to be marked. Not necessarily in the way you might think, it is enough to scratch things or rub against them, leaving my scent on them, which I recognize very well. My scent makes the territory cozy;
3. My territory needs to be protected from strangers, and if this is impossible to do, there is a desire to run away or hide. What to do with this urge - you should decide for yourself;
4. It does not matter at all where my territory will be, I will feel comfortable anywhere, as long as the point 1 is observed;
5. The size of the territory should be such as to ensure my survival. There is no need for an overly large territory;
6. Going beyond your territory is always stressful;
7. ...but it can be minimized if there is a person next to me whom I trust enough;
8. Not all familiar places are mine, there are also "less mine" territories, where I feel less safe than at home - it is not binary value. I would gladly give them up, if it were not for the need to get food;
9. If strange leopards appeared on my territory... I would do everything possible to make sure that they were no longer there. No one from my kintype should live on my territory, except for me and my family. What did you expect? Therianthropy is not worship of a sacred animal, it is about being one. With all its pros and cons.

 

Thus, I can confidently say that I am territorial. Although my territoriality creates a lot of problems for me in life, it absolutely precisely corresponds to the territoriality of my species and there simply cannot be another. Otherwise, I will no longer be me.