Factors affecting the home range size of felids (Mammalia, Carnivora) with emphasis on three American species

Abstract

We evaluated several factors that might be related to the home-range size of felids at both inter and intraspecific levels. At the interspecific level, we tested the influence of body mass on home range size of 19 felid species, while controlling for phylogeny. At the species level, we evaluated the effect of sex and habitat type (open vs. closed) on the home range size of three species of felids occurring in America, Panthera onca, Leopardus pardalis and Puma concolor, which are among the most studied species concerning home ranges. Body mass, sex, and home range data were extracted from the Pantheria database (for 19 species, for interspecific comparisons) and from 48 studies for intraspecific comparisons. We assessed the influence of body mass on the home range size of felids using phylogenetic generalized least squares analysis. We evaluated the existence of sexual dimorphism on both home range size and body mass using paired t-tests. Finally, we investigated the influence of habitat type (open vs. closed) on home range size using ANOVA. Our results show that home range size is positively influenced by body mass in felids. At the intraspecific level, we confirmed that both the body mass and home range are larger for males than for the females in P. onca, L. pardalis and P. concolor. Moreover, the average home range size of P. onca is larger in open (i.e., grasslands, deserts and shrublands) than in closed (i.e., forests) habitats. Overall, our results confirm that larger home ranges are associated with larger body sizes in animals that need a large amount of food resources or specific resources (such as the specific prey requirements of felids) to maintain their metabolic rates. Furthermore, home range size of these three felids seems to be strongly influenced by reproductive attributes as well as by habitat quality, suggesting a connection with the spatial distribution of both food (prey) and mates. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.17.27.2.0.416