Intensity of space use reveals conditional sex-specific effects of prey and conspecific density on home range size

Home range (HR) size variation is often linked to resource abundance, with sex differences expected to relate to sex-specific fitness consequences. However, studies generally fail to disentangle the effects of the two main drivers of HR size variation, food and conspecific density, and rarely consider how their relative influence change over spatiotemporal scales. We used location data from 77 Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) from a 16-year Scandinavian study to examine HR sizes variation relative to prey and conspecific density at different spatiotemporal scales. By varying the isopleth parameter (intensity-of-use) defining the HR, we show that sex-specific effects were conditional on the spatial scale considered. Males had larger HRs than females in all seasons. Female total HR size declined as prey and conspecific density increased, whereas male total HR was only affected by conspecific density. However, as the intensity of use within the HR increased (from 90 to 50% isopleth), the relation...