Site fidelity and effects of body mass on. home-range size of EgypUan mongooses

Abstract

Home-range size has been found to be related to body mass of some animals both across species and within species when the spatial strategies of the sexes differ. I studied home-range size in a polygynous carnivore, the Egyptian mongoose (Herpesres ichneumon), and compared observed home-range size with predictions based on body mass. First, I tested whether mongooses actually exhibited site fidelity (for daily and multiday periods). Mongooses always showed site fidelity for a multiday home range, but in only 59% of the cases for daily home range. Adult males exhibited less daily site fidelity than did adult females or young. Multiday home-range size was similar among age—sex classes, but males had significantly more core areas than females or young. Moltiday home-range size was positively correlated with body mass for adult males (r2 0.98, P 0.0122) and negatively correlated with body mass of adult females (r2 = 0.40, P = 0.0374). Differences in these relationships and daily site fidelity between adult males and females suggest that the spatial strategies of male and female Egyptian mongooses are diffesent, with the \arger femaes defending the areas richer in resouTces and the larger males having more access to females