1. In ecology, the living space of an animal which it will defend from the forays of other territorial animals. Animals need space in which to reproduce and their territory can be some or all of the following: a source of food, a source of mates, and a breeding area. Pakeman (2001) J. Biogeog. 28, 6 investigates possible links between simple migration rates and herbivore territory size.

2. The area claimed or controlled by a state or other political actor. The contested basis for such claims in large part shapes the politics of conflict. Political geographers study territoriality as the means by which political actors translate their control over a territory into control over people, resources, and relationships (Dahlman in C. Gallaher et al. 2009). A ‘national territory’—the area of land seen to be inhabited by a nation—is based on claims to a particular space, usually backed up by references to history (actual or invented) and central to the nation’s being. ‘Territory comprises ancestors, knowledge, the use of plants, their evolution, the perception of the cosmos, customs and community and living history’ (Ceceña (2004) Antipode 36, 3). Elden (2011) PHG 34, 6 outlines the issues at stake in grasping how ‘territory’ has been understood in different historical and geographical contexts. Competing territory claims are a major source of conflict. In a paper that well rewards careful study, Alatout (2006) Pol. Geog. 25, 6 shows that different perceptions of territory between Palestinians and Israelis lead to forms of resistance that are focused on property rights and questions of sovereignty in Palestine and on concerns over quality of life of the population in Israel.