Factors modulating home range and resource use: a case study with Canarian houbara bustards

ABSTRACT: The home range of an animal is determined by its ecological requirements, and these may vary depending on many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which are ultimately driven by food resources. Investigating the effects of these factors, and specifically how individuals use food resources within their home ranges is essential to understand the ecology and dynamics of animal populations, and to establish conservation measures in the case of endangered species. Here, we investigate these questions in the Canarian houbara bustard, an endangered subspecies of African houbara endemic to the Canary Islands.We are grateful to A. Rodríguez, T. Díaz-Valera and F. Corujo for their collaboration during the fieldwork, E. Arrondo for helping with the AcceleRater software, and A. Perona for his help and tips about the “rhr package”, M. A. Cabrera for managing capture permits and for his support during the project, F. Crespo, M. Armas, A. Ibarguren and M. Gil for their assistance during the preparation of the project, the guards of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Timanfaya National Park and La Graciosa, including TRAGSA personnel, the veterinarian C. M. Suárez, and all authorities of the Government of the Canary Islands for their collaboration. We also thank J. M. Poveda and F. Suárez of GRAFCAN for providing images and ortophotos of the islands. Two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor provided useful comments that helped to improve our manuscript. This study was funded by Red Eléctrica de España (REE) through a contract with Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)