Home range size is a fundamental measure of animal space use, providing insight into habitat quality, animal density, and social organization. Human impacts increasingly are affecting wildlife, especially among wide-ranging species that encounter anthropogenic disturbance. Leopards (Panthera pardus) provide a useful model for studying this relationship because leopards coexist with people at high and low human densities and are sensitive to human disturbance. To compare leopard home range size across a range of human densities and other environmental conditions, we combined animal tracking data from 74 leopards in multiple studies with new analytical techniques that accommodate different sampling regimes. We predicted that home ranges would be smaller in more productive habitats and areas of higher human population density due to possible linkage with leopard prey subsidies from domestic species. We also predicted that male leopards would have larger home ranges than those of females. Home ranges varied in size from 14.5 km2 in India to 885.6 km2 in Namibia, representing a 60-fold magnitude of variation. Home range stability was evident for 95.2% of nontranslocated individuals and 38.5% of translocated individuals. Leopard home range sizes were negatively correlated with landscape productivity, and males used larger areas than females. Leopards in open habitats had a predicted negative correlation in home range size with human population density, but leopards in closed habitats used larger home ranges in areas with more people.

中文翻译：

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生活在人类密度梯度上的豹子的栖息地变化

家庭范围大小是动物空间利用的基本衡量标准，可以深入了解栖息地质量、动物密度和社会组织。人类的影响越来越多地影响到野生动物，特别是在遇到人为干扰的广泛物种中。豹（Panthera pardus）为研究这种关系提供了一个有用的模型，因为豹与人类密度高和低的人共存，并且对人类干扰很敏感。为了比较一系列人类密度和其他环境条件下的豹子栖息地大小，我们将多项研究中来自 74 只豹子的动物追踪数据与适应不同采样制度的新分析技术相结合。我们预测，由于可能与国内物种的豹子猎物补贴有关，在生产力更高的栖息地和人口密度更高的地区，家庭范围会更小。我们还预测雄性豹子的活动范围会比雌性豹子更大。家庭范围的大小从印度的 14.5 平方公里到纳米比亚的 885.6 平方公里不等，代表了 60 倍的变化幅度。95.2% 的非易位个体和 38.5% 的易位个体具有明显的家庭范围稳定性。豹子的栖息地大小与景观生产力呈负相关，雄性比雌性使用更大的区域。预计开放栖息地中的豹子的栖息地大小与人口密度呈负相关，但封闭栖息地中的豹子在人口较多的地区使用更大的栖息地。