Skip to main content

Home range — body mass relations: a field study on African browsing ruminants

Summary

Home range data were collected concurrently from four syntopic browsing ruminant species in a conserved savanna ecosystem. Mean home range areas were: giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) 282 km2; kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) 21.9 km2; impala (Aepyceros melampus) 5.82 km2; steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) 0.62 km2. Home range area (A hr) scaled on body mass (M) as: A hr=0.024 M 1.38 (r 2=0.99).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

References

  • Allen-Rowlandson TS (1980) The Social and Spatial Organisation of the Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros Pallas 1766) in the Andries Vosloo Kudu Reserve, Eastern Cape. PhD thesis, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

  • Berry PS (1978) Range movements of giraffe in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. E Afr Wildl J 16:77–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Damuth J (1981) Home range, home range overlap, and species energy use among herbivorous mammals. Biol J Linn Soc 15:185–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster JB, Dagg AI (1972) Notes on the biology of the giraffe. E Afr Wildl J 10:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Harestad AS, Bunnell FL (1979) Home range and body weight — a re-evaluation. Ecology 60:389–402

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillman JC (1988) Home range and movement of the common eland (Taurotragus oryx Pallas 1776) in Kenya. Afr J Ecol 26:135–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarman MV (1970) Attachment to home area in impala. E Afr Wildl J 8:198–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleiber M (1961) The Fire of Life: An Introduction to Animal Energetics. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Langman VA (1973) Ratio-tracking giraffe for ecological studies. J S Afr Wildl Mgmt Ass 3:75–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Leuthold BM, Leuthold W (1978) Ecology of the giraffe in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. E Afr Wildl J 16:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindstedt SL, Miller BJ, Buskirk SW (1986) Home range, time, and body size in mammals. Ecology 67:413–418

    Google Scholar 

  • McNab BK (1963) Bioenergetics and the determination of home range size. Amer Nat 97:133–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray MG (1982) Home range, dispersal, and the clan system of the impala. Afr J Ecol 20:253–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen-Smith RN (1979) Assessing the foraging efficiency of a large herbivore, the kudu. S Afr J Wildl Res 9:102–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen-Smith RN (1988) Megaherbivores. The Influence of Very Large Body Size on Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pellew RA (1984) Giraffe and Okapi. In: MacDonald D (ed) The Encyclopaedia of Mammals: 2, pp 534–541. George Allen and Unwin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennycuick CJ (1979) Energy costs of locomotion and the concept of “foraging radius”. In: Sinclair ARE, Norton-Griffiths M (eds) Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosysytem, pp 164–184. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss M (1988) Scaling of home range size: body size, metabolic needs and ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 3:85–86

    Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute Inc (1985) SAS User's Guide: Statistics, Version 5 Edition. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW (1968) Sizes of feeding territories among birds. Ecology 49:123–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Smithers RHN (1983) The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. University of Pretoria, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Southwood TRE (1978) Ecological Methods, 2nd Ed. Chapman and Hall, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Swihart RK, Slade NA, Bergstrom BJ (1988) Relating body size to the rate of home range use in mammals. Ecology 69:393–399

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

du Toit, J.T. Home range — body mass relations: a field study on African browsing ruminants. Oecologia 85, 301–303 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00319416

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00319416

Key words

  • Home range
  • Allometry
  • Browsing ruminants