Mammalian Biology 94 (2019) 30–37 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Mammalian Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mambio Original investigation Spatial organization and habitat selection of Geoffroy’s cat in the Espinal of central Argentina Diego Fabián Castillo a,b,∗ , Estela Maris Luengos Vidal a,b , Nicolás Carmelo Caruso a,b , Claudia Manfredi b , Mauro Lucherini a,b , Emma Beatriz Casanave a,b a Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur (INBIOSUR), Departamento de Biología Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET, Bahía Blanca, Argentina b GECM (Grupo de Ecología Comportamental de Mamíferos), Departamento de Biología Bioquímica y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 7 March 2018 Accepted 7 December 2018 Available online 10 December 2018 Handled by Adriano Martinoli Keywords: Compositional analysis Eigenanalysis Home range Leopardus geoffroyi Radiotelemetry a b s t r a c t We report data on the spatial ecology and habitat selection of eight adult Geoffroy’s cat Leopardus geoffroyi (five males and three females) that were radiotracked in an area of the central Argentine Espinal. Mean home range size varied from 2.2 ± 1.9 km 2 (Kernel 95% ) to 2.8 ± 2.4 km 2 (MCP 100% ), with male home ranges 4.1 larger than those of females. Core areas (Kernel 50% ) averaged 0.7 ± 0.7 km 2 and were 3 times smaller for females. Daily movement patterns were consistent with the variations in home range sizes being greater in males (590.2 m ± 476.6) than females (413.5 m ± 288.1). Home range overlap averaged 38%, and was highly variable between males and females and reached its highest value for intersexual pairs. At second-order resolution, most of individuals had a strong selection for open woodland, while the other habitats were generally avoided. At the home range level, although the electivity index values for the open woodland were positive for all animals, habitat selection showed a high inter-individual variation. Our data support previous studies that suggest that Geoffroy’s cats show a certain degree of flexibility in their spatial behavior. Finally, we argue that natural woodland patches or habitats with dense vegetation are important for L. geoffroyi in the Argentinean Espinal and their alteration can affect the conservation status of this cat. © 2018 Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ ur S¨ augetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction Habitat loss has been considered one of the most pervasive threats to biodiversity conservation (Fahrig, 2003; Hoffmann et al., 2011; Wilson et al., 2016). Terrestrial carnivores are particularly vulnerable to the effects of habitat loss due to their relatively narrow trophic niche, limited fecundity and typically large spa- tial requirements and low population densities (Crooks, 2002; Farris et al., 2015). Trends in habitat utilization potentially pro- vide information relating to population resilience in response to environmental change. Species closely associated with specific habitat features are more reliant upon the size, number, and spa- tial distribution of these features than animals with less specialized requirements (Zanin et al., 2015). Whereas many members of the ∗ Corresponding author at: Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur (INBIOSUR), Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET, San Juan 671, 8000, Bahía Blanca, Argentina. E-mail address: dcastillo@criba.edu.ar (D.F. Castillo). Felidae family display a degree of plasticity in their use of habitat (Athreya et al., 2013; Farrell et al., 2018; Lantschner et al., 2012), others appear to be strongly associated with specific habitat types (Austin et al., 2007; Dunstone et al., 2002; Harveson et al., 2004; Napolitano et al., 2008). Despite these variations in habits, a com- mon pattern in neotropical wild felids is that they tend to prefer either forested habitats or dense vegetation (Emmons and Feer, 1997). At a local scale, habitat composition and utilization inevitably influence spatial patterning (Macdonald, 1983). Except for lions and cheetahs, wild felids spatial organization is typically characterized as solitary and territorial (Bradshaw, 2016; Mellen, 1993); in fact, they space themselves within a land tenure system whereby lit- tle intersexual overlap occurs between the ranges of conspecifics (Lynx rufus: Diefenbach et al., 2006; Puma concolor: Elbroch et al., 2017). However, there is much variability among spacing mecha- nisms, from nearly exclusive and actively defended home ranges to flexible spacing systems based on mutual tolerance or tempo- ral avoidance (for example Lynx rufus: Bailey, 1974; Lynch et al., 2008; Leopardus pardalis: Emmons and Feer, 1997; Rodgers et al., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2018.12.003 1616-5047/© 2018 Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ ur S¨ augetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.