Black-Footed Ferret Home Ranges in Conata Basin, South Dakota
2012
Livieri, Travis M. | Anderson, Eric M.
We estimated annual home ranges and core areas of black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) in Conata Basin, South Dakota, by collecting 834 locations of 28 ferrets (20 females, 8 males) through spotlighting from October 1997 to September 2000. Area-per-observation curves showed that a minimum of 23 locations were needed to estimate fixed-kernel home-range size. Mean 95% and 50% fixed-kernel annual home-range sizes of females (95%: 64.7 ha, SE = 11.6; 50%: 12.7 ha, SE = 3.0) were significantly smaller and less variable than those of males (95%: 131.8 ha, SE = 40.3; 50%: 35.6 ha, SE = 16.5). Minimum convex polygon home-range estimates also differed between females (41.9 ha, SE = 6.5 ha) and males (86.3 ha, SE = 21.3). Females' ranges were consistently less variable than males' ranges, regardless of the home-range estimator used. Female home-range size was negatively related to male density (r ² = 0.433), and male home-range size was positively associated with age (r ² = 0.671). Intersexual overlap and intrasexual exclusivity of home ranges was evident, suggesting that ferrets conform to a typical mustelid spacing pattern. Core use areas (50% fixed-kernel ranges) had significantly higher black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) densities than 95% areas (t = 5.17, P = 0.014), suggesting that core areas are located in areas of higher prairie dog densities. Relative to other mustelids, black-footed ferrets have considerably smaller home ranges.
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