The effect of supplemental feeding on home range size and activity patterns in the lizard Uta stansburiana

Summary

There was no difference in home range size between supplementally fed and unfed lizards even though supplementally fed lizards gained significantly more body mass than did unfed lizards. A logistic growth model was fit to curves of accumulative home range size against days of observation for fed and unfed lizards. An analysis of these curves showed that supplementally fed lizards's home range estimates grew at a slower rate than did unfed lizards. Thus, fed lizards utilized the habitat at a slower rate than did unfed lizards. Moreover, the rate at which fed lizards utilized the habitat was linearly related to their increase in body mass. Supplementally fed male and unfed lizards of both sexes were equally active through the summer. On average, they were active on one out of every two days (49.4%), whereas, supplementally fed females were active on a significantly greater number of days (83.9%).