Animal home ranges are influenced by diverse intrinsic and extrinsic factors. For example, habitat heterogeneity may affect the spatial distribution of resources leading to larger home ranges where resources are spatially dispersed or, conversely, smaller home ranges where resources are concentrated or abundant. Other landscape features may lead to smaller home ranges by constraining or restricting animal movements. Understanding the relative importance of these two processes is increasingly important given the prevalence of anthropogenic features across contemporary landscapes. We test the relative importance of habitat heterogeneity and movement restriction on the home range size of a wide‐ranging, habitat and dietary generalist, the federally threatened eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi). We used data from 83 radio‐tracked individuals in a multi‐scale analysis of home range size as a function of multiple landscape features representing land cover and habitat heterogeneity. We found that home range size was negatively correlated to habitat heterogeneity (i.e., the standard deviation of normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI]) and urban intensity. Smaller home ranges in areas with high habitat heterogeneity and low urban intensity likely reflected reduced resource dispersion through the concentration of diverse foraging habitats. Home ranges were smallest in urban landscapes which, combined with previously documented avoidance of urban habitats by eastern indigo snakes, suggests that urban land cover restricts home range size. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering both the influence of resource dispersion and movement barriers in understanding animal space use. Moreover, we highlight the need to consider the potential role of anthropogenically subsidized resources (e.g., prey, shelter sites) to understand variation in eastern indigo snake home range sizes within urban areas.

中文翻译：

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运动障碍，生境异质性还是两者兼而有之？测试景观特征对东部靛蓝蛇居家范围大小的假设影响

动物的家园范围受到各种内在和外在因素的影响。例如，栖息地异质性可能会影响资源的空间分布，从而导致资源在空间上分散的较大家庭范围，或者相反，会导致资源集中或丰富的较小家庭范围。其他景观特征可能会通过限制或限制动物的活动来缩小家园范围。鉴于当代景观中普遍存在人为特征，因此了解这两个过程的相对重要性变得越来越重要。我们测试了栖息地异质性和迁徙限制对范围广泛的栖息地和饮食通才，联邦政府威胁的东部靛蓝蛇（Drymarchon couperi）。在对房屋范围大小进行多尺度分析时，我们使用了来自83个无线电跟踪个人的数据，这些数据是代表土地覆盖和栖息地异质性的多个景观特征的函数。我们发现家庭范围大小与栖息地异质性（即归一化差异植被指数[NDVI]的标准偏差）和城市强度呈负相关。高栖息地异质性和低城市强度地区的房屋范围较小，可能反映了通过集中觅食的不同栖息地而减少了资源分散。家庭范围在城市景观中是最小的，再加上先前有文献记载的东部靛蓝蛇避开城市栖息地，表明城市土地覆盖限制了家庭范围的大小。我们的结果表明，在理解动物空间的使用时，必须考虑到资源分散和移动障碍的影响。此外，我们强调有必要考虑人为补贴资源（例如猎物，庇护所）的潜在作用，以了解市区内东部靛蓝蛇的家园规模变化。