Social structure and drivers behind asynchronous burrow associations of the desert tortoise

For several species, refuges (such as burrows, dens, roosts, nests) are an essential resource for protection from predators and extreme environmental conditions. Refuges also serve as focal sites of social interactions including mating, courtship and aggression. Knowledge of refuge use patterns can therefore provide information about social structure as well mating and foraging success of wildlife populations, especially for 1 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/025494 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Aug. 25, 2015;