Factors Influencing Home-Range Size in Subadult Brown Bears
Most studies of animals' home-range sizes have focused on adults, and the home ranges of subadults are usually, at best, only mentioned anecdotally. In this paper we report home-range sizes of 56 philopatric sexually immature (1.5- and 2.5-year-old) brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) in 2 Swedish stu...
| Published in: | Journal of Mammalogy |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jmammal.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/87/5/859 https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-352R1.1 |
| Summary: | Most studies of animals' home-range sizes have focused on adults, and the home ranges of subadults are usually, at best, only mentioned anecdotally. In this paper we report home-range sizes of 56 philopatric sexually immature (1.5- and 2.5-year-old) brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) in 2 Swedish study areas and how size is influenced by sex, age, body size, food availability, and population density. Home-range size was larger in males than in females, and home-range size increased with increasing body size, but was not related to individual age. Home-range size decreased with increasing population density, but less so in females than in males, a result consistent with the formation of matrilinear assemblages recently reported in brown bears. Although home ranges were larger in the less-productive northern study area than in the southern one, home-range size was not related to a general index of food availability. |
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