Data from: Social and seasonal variation in dwarf mongoose home-range size, daily movements and burrow use

When making decisions about resource use, social species must integrate
not only environmental factors but also the influence of opportunities and
costs associated with group living. Bigger groups are expected to move
further and to need access to larger areas for adequate food acquisition,
but the relationships with group size can vary seasonally and with the
reproductive stage. Shelters are often more consistent in availability
than food, but their use relates to factors such as predator defense and
parasite transmission that are themselves influenced by group size and
seasonality. Here, we used long-term data to investigate resource use and
associated movement in a wild population of dwarf mongooses (Helogale
parvula). We found that bigger groups occupied larger home ranges, moved
larger daily distances, and covered more daily areas than smaller ones,
whilst environmental greenness (measured by normalised difference
vegetation index [NDVI]) influenced daily movements in the breeding season
but not the non-breeding season. Both assessed axes of seasonality also
had pronounced effects on shelter use: mongoose groups used more unique
sleeping burrows, and switched between burrows more often, in the breeding
season, but also switched more when environmental greenness was higher. By
investigating specific periods within the breeding season, we revealed the
constraints that vulnerable, poorly mobile offspring impose on both group
movements and burrow use, highlighting a potentially overlooked cost of
reproduction. Our results show how both social and environmental factors
can affect key resource-use decisions, demonstrating potential costs and
benefits to groups living within distinctly seasonal geographic areas.