Estimating global determinants of leopard home range size in a changing world

• Published in: Animal conservation Vol. 25; no. 6; pp. 748 - 758
• Main Authors: Rodríguez‐Recio, M, Burgos, T, Krofel, M, Lozano, J, Moleón, M, Virgós, E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Carnivores; climate change; Competitors; Conservation; Conspecifics; Domestic species; Ecology; Ekologi; Females; Food resources; Home range; human disturbance; Human impact; Human influences; human‐wildlife conflicts; large carnivores; leopard; movement ecology; Panthera pardus; Populations; Predators; Prey; Productivity; roaming behaviour; Seasonal variation; Seasonal variations
• ISSN: 1367-9430; 1469-1795; 1469-1795
• DOI: 10.1111/acv.12777

Movement is a fundamental process in animal ecology. For many species, such as large carnivores, movement patterns are greatly shaped by a combination of ecological and anthropogenic factors. Understanding how these factors impact the roaming capacity of large carnivores is essential to forecast risks and design long‐term conservation strategies. The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a generalist predator broadly distributed over varied and different environments, but global leopard populations are declining at a concerning rate and conservation actions are pressing. This scenario makes the leopard a suitable species to understand how global ecological and anthropogenic drivers affect the spatial behaviour of large carnivores and how these should inform conservation efforts. We compiled data from local studies worldwide and used macroecological (climatic, productivity, and human footprint), and intra‐ and interspecific (conspecifics, competitors and prey) predictors to model the roaming requirements of leopards based on home range sizes. Male home range size was largely and positively related to the range sizes of local females and inversely to vegetation productivity. For females, higher seasonal variations in temperature like the observed in arid areas were associated with larger home ranges, while increased human impact resulted in smaller home ranges likely due to concentrated food resources such as domestic species. These predictors are linked to threatening global change processes due to anthropogenic activities that will likely impact the roaming behaviour of leopards in the coming decades with potential consequences for their populations worldwide. Our results provide crucial information towards the development of integrative research linking macroecological and local variables with global change predictions that can inform conservation programmes addressing future risks of degradation, endangerment and human‐leopard conservation conflicts. The leopard (Panthera pardus) is an iconic, generalist and broadly distributed felid undergoing severe population declines. We conducted macroecological research to identify the determinants of leopard home range size across their global distribution. Increasing climate warming and landscape anthropization will strongly impact leopard movements and home range size, which is highly significant for transboundary conservation efforts.