Home Range and Habitat Use by Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizards in the Southern San Joaquin Desert of California

We used radiotracking to study the home range and use of space by Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizards (Gambelia sila) in the Lokern Natural Area in the San Joaquin Desert of California. The average home-range size of males, based on the fixed kernal local convex hull method, was 6.21 ha in 2003 and 7.62 ha in 2004, which differed significantly from the average size for females, which was 2.85 ha in 2003 and 3.17 ha in 2004. Average home-range size did not differ significantly between years or with the interaction of sex and year. Home ranges of nine lizards with collars were in about the same locations between 2003 and 2004. There were no significant differences in either the percentage or number of home-range overlaps among adjacent pairs. Males moved an average of ∼100 m daily, significantly farther than the 65-m average daily movements of females, but there were no significant differences for the average greatest distance moved in 1 day by sex or year, or their interaction. The longest distance moved in a day for a male was 615 m and for a female was 642 m. We found that home ranges of Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizards contained more area of saltbush (Atriplex spp.) than expected based on proportion of area, but home-range sizes and distances moved did not differ significantly based on shrub presence.