Drives Intraspecific Scaling of Home Range Size in Mammals

Giroux, A. et al. Sex Drives Intraspecific Scaling of Home Range Size in Mammals. Ecology Letters, v. 28, n. 11, p. e70245, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70245.

 FIGURE 2 | Spatial distribution of data collection across the Brazilian savanna and grassland (land- use land- cover classification shown here is based on Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics' 1:250,000 vegetation map (28)). Brazil's map shows the location of the study sites (1–14) where species were GPS- tracked (A): puma (9, 10), ocelot (2), Geoffroy's cat (13, 14), margay (13, 14), jaguar (5), crab- eating fox (4, 8), hoary fox (8), maned wolf (11, 12), coati (7), six- banded armadillo (4), southern three- banded armadillo (1, 3), pampas deer (4), wild boar (4), giant armadillo (4), brown brocket deer (4), white- lipped peccary (6), giant anteater (4), and capybara (7). The map of South America highlights Brazil in grey and the area covering the study sites in the black box (B).

 ABSTRACT

Understanding variation in home range size (HR) provides important insights into the underlying ecological processes driving space use. However, it remains unclear whether the interspecific allometric scaling of mammals' HR can also be consistently ob served within species and for both sexes. To address this knowledge gap, we GPS- tracked 349 resident individuals across Brazil,  encompassing 18 mammal species. We estimated individuals' HR and modelled intraspecific variation in HR against body mass (BM) and sex. While males showed a positive allometric scaling similar to interspecific findings reported in the literature (exponent = 1.23), females' BM had no statistically discernible relationship with HR. We suggest that males have greater energetic and evolutionary in centives to expand their HR with increasing BM, and more physical capacity to do so. Traditional studies on HR scaling that disregard individual sex may, in reality, reflect an average of two distinct patterns, while failing to accurately represent either one.

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