habitation

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A dwelling is a protected, usually covered place for one or more living beings .

Delimitation of the designation

In certain cases, places for certain things are also referred to as housing (but not as dwelling), e.g. B. watch case . The term house is also not always to be taken literally, e.g. B. in animals or in temporary dwellings of humans.

A distinction is made between animal and human dwellings. They can be artificial or natural. Dwellings are usually stable and weatherproof. A natural habitation is the cave or the Abri (rock overhang).

Human dwellings

Human dwellings can be used for residential purposes or, as fortifications, prevent a strategically important place from being accessed by other people, or be a place of sacred acts.

Various human dwellings

Residential buildings

Residential buildings of man probably have the most diverse forms. The mobile tent is one of the oldest artificial human dwellings . It is made from carrier material (rods, bones) and fur or fabric . In the present day the tourism and sports industries have developed a wide range of different tents. The builders of the igloo use a natural building material in the form of solid snow in a cold environment.

to form

The house, if necessary with the corresponding apartment or accommodation, forms permanent human dwelling .

Above all, one differentiates

Other forms of housing

Animal housing

Molehills

Animal housing serves different functions and exists in different forms. Typical forms include e.g. B. pits and hollows (especially in mammals), dwelling caves (including goblins , burrows ), mounds (in mammals and state-forming insects ), hives (e.g. beehives ), nests (including clumps , bivouac nests , web nests and foam nests ), nurseries (for bats ) and shells (e.g. snail shells ). The dwelling built by humans for animals is the stable or the cage . Artificially created habitats for animals are also terrariums , aquariums and bird houses .

The snail shell - a mobile dwelling - forms an original unit with its inhabitant and is used in certain cases by other animals when leaving, e.g. B. from the Common Hermit Crab .

to form

In ethological publications the term “dwellings” is often used in connection with animals. Residential structures made by animals or natural retreats based on animals are often referred to differently depending on the design, language area and animal (examples in brackets):

  • Construction (Burrow, termite, ant; correct plural "Build" Fuchsbaue, Tierbaue - plural form "T" is for human construction t e n reserved )
  • Building
  • Dwelling (animal housing)
  • Web nest (common nest of some caterpillars )
  • pit
  • Cave (bear cave, woodpecker cave)
  • Horst (nest of a bird of prey or certain other large birds)
  • Hill (anthill, molehill, termite hill)
  • Chamber (specific section of an animal building)
  • Cauldron in the hunter's language the main room of the fox or badger den, camp for a wild boar rot and, as a throwing cauldron, the brook's nest with freshlings
  • Kobel (nest of squirrels or dormouse )
  • Kuhle (temporary roosting place for deer )
  • Nest ( tree nest of birds , bottom nest of ground brooders, wasp nest, tree nest of monkeys, ant nest)
  • Foam nest in some insects, fish, frogs
  • Stick (beehive)
  • Maternity room Summer quarters for pregnant bats

Functions

An animal building serves, among other things, to protect against predators and to avoid changeable weather in the course of thermoregulation . In addition to anatomical adaptations, animal burrows are measures to minimize threat factors when staying, at least during periods of rest and for the rearing phase, in protected areas. Housing is a way out for less defensive land animals in a threatening environment to survive rest periods better. But not only vertebrates invest a lot of energy in building secure retreats, the same applies to other animals such as insects.

Earthworks or tree nests can be used for egg laying , brood care or just for periods of rest , hibernation or hibernation and can be used temporarily or long-term. Many animals use dwellings to protect and hide from the weather (cold, precipitation) or from predators during periods of rest or when there is a lack of food. While a number of animals accept existing retreats unchanged, others carry out active construction measures. Simple seat pits up to complex constructions can be made, in some cases supplies can be stored there or in side chambers at the same time. Sometimes escape tubes are part of the structure, especially in earthworks.

Often, acts of nest building or the gender-specific presentation of a nest (often the insignia of territorial ownership) are a construction for intra-species communication, for advertising (the quality of the execution can then be subject to sexual selection ) or to strengthen a couple relationship.

protection

Residential buildings are created with energy expenditure in order to minimize evolutionarily significant and existential threat potential. Threats that can be affected to a significant extent by residential buildings are primarily conveyed through

  1. Predators (predators)
  2. Competitors
  3. Parasites
  4. Microorganisms
  5. Surface water
  6. frost
  7. heat
  8. Strong wind
  9. Humidity ( precipitation , humidity )

Other risks can be countered by some animal species with suitable additional structures (e.g. lack of food due to storage).

The threat situation depends on the acute prevailing threat components in the habitat , one's own (anatomical) defenses and size, speed and perseverance to escape, individual creativity and living situation (egg, juvenile stage, adult animal, pregnancy).

The individual threat factors act differently for each species and ultimately for each individual. For example, the term predators includes such different species as (depending on the size of the prey) large predators or small predators (hedgehogs: earthworms) coming by land or threatening birds of prey from the air or crocodiles approaching from the water or martens climbing on trees or in Snakes invading crevices.

Badger on the construction site
Entrance of a burrow

As can be seen from the examples, the evolutionary setting of the course for a certain design already entails essential protective effects. At the same time, however, a number of additional problems will arise and the construction or the search for suitable site conditions, possibly conquering them, ties up energy.

Additional protective measures

Additional measures depend, among other things, on the specific needs, the anatomical conditions, the weighting of the remaining threat potential, taking into account the selected design, the rearing time and the local food supply.

In caves, the construction of additional tunnels increases the safety of an earthwork, but ties up a lot of energy. The creation of tunnel curves in a complex earthwork turns it into a labyrinth for the intruder, from which the owner can achieve decisive advantages in an emergency. Reliable orientation is a prerequisite for the system.

The beaver uses energy practically every day to keep the water level constant in the area of ​​the underwater access to its earth structure. To do this, he builds a water barrier, the beaver dam, repairs it and opens it when the water level rises. These efforts essentially serve the goal of making the access opening to his living chamber inaccessible to predators (except otters). If there is a lack of water, he becomes more easily a victim. If he cannot control the water level in his area, he usually creates several places of refuge.

The function of the side nest of some male birds is interpreted by some ornithologists to divert interspecific breeding parasites and to lead them astray.

American ground squirrels ( Spermophilus spp. ), Especially females, gnaw the “adder shirt” (stripped moulting residue) of rattlesnakes ( Crotalus spp. ) And then transfer their saliva to their fur and that of the young animals in the burrow. This scent mark spreads through the building and flows out of the entrance so that it is avoided by rattlesnakes.

materials

Most dwellings are built using exogenous building materials , while e.g. B. in snails the shell is created exclusively by secretion and provided by the metabolism (endogenous origin) and in some birds and insects a mixed form occurs (e.g. swallow nests , termite mounds , beehives).

Web links

Commons : Dwellings  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: habitation  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Semper : The four elements of architecture . (PDF; 15.9 MB). Braunschweig 1851;
    The Four Elements of Architecture and other writings. Cambridge University Press, England 1989.
  2. ↑ Erich Ziegelmeier: About the residential form of Arenicola marina L. - Exposing corridors in situ with the help of a box. In: Helgoland Marine Research , Volume 11, No. 3-4, pp. 157-160, doi: 10.1007 / BF01612366 .
  3. ↑ Duden grammar for "Bau"
  4. ^ A b c Michael Henry Hansell: Animal architecture. In: Oxford University Press , 2005, pp. 1-2, ISBN 978-0-19-850752-9 .
  5. ^ A b c M. H. Hansell: The ecological impact of animal nests and burrows . In: Functional Ecology , Volume 7, No. 1, 1993, pp. 5-12.
  6. ^ A b O. J. Reichman, Stan C. Smith: Burrows and burrowing behavior by mammals . (PDF) In: Genoways: Current Mammalogy , Chapter 5, pp. 369-416, published by: Plenum Press , New York / London 1990.
  7. ^ Russell N. James III: The origin of spaces: Understanding residential satisfaction from ape nests, human cultures and the hierarchy of natural housing functions. In: Housing, Theory and Society , Volume 27, No. 4, 2010, pp. 279-295, doi: 10.1080 / 14036090903160018 .
  8. ^ Robert MJ Deacon: Assessing nest building in mice. In: Nature Protocols , Volume 1, 2006, pp. 1117-1119, doi: 10.1038 / nprot.2006.170 .
  9. ↑ a b H. G. Andrewartha, LC Birch: The Ecological Web. Published by: University of Chicago Press , 1986
  10. ↑ a b Thomas Alerstam, Göran Högstedt: Evolution of hole-nesting birds in. In: Ornis Scandinavica , Vol. 12, No. 3, 1981, pp. 188-193.
  11. ↑ Heike Lutermann, Luke Verburgt, Antje Rendigs: Resting and nesting in a small mammal: sleeping sites as a limiting resource for female gray mouse lemurs. In: Animal Behavior , Volume 79, No. 6, 2010, pp. 1211-1219, doi: 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2010.02.017 .
  12. ↑ Kurt Kuhnen: On the pair formation of the sand martin (Riparia riparia). In: J. Ornithology , Volume 126, No. 1, doi: 10.1007 / BF01640439 .
  13. ↑ a b L. D. Hayes, AS Chesh, LA Ebensperger: Ecological predictors of range areas and use of burrow systems in the diurnal rodent, Octodon degus. In: Ethology , Volume 113, 2007, pp. 155-165, doi: 10.1111 / j.1439-0310.2006.01305.x .
  14. ↑ Steven L. Lima, Lawrence M. Dill: Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus. In: Canadian J. Zoology , Vol. 68, No. 4, 1990, p. 619, doi: 10.1139 / z90-092 .
  15. ↑ Barbara Clucas: Snake scent application in ground squirrels, Spermophilus spp .: a novel form of antipredator behavior? In: Animal Behavior , Volume 75, No. 1, 2008, pp. 299-307, doi: 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2007.05.024 .