RYSER: VIRGINIA OPOSSUMS (DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA) IN FLORIDA


presumably low food abundance, was positively associated with male and slightly
positively associated with female home range sizes, suggesting that home ranges are
larger in poor habitats where opossums are expected to range more widely to satisfy
their metabolic needs. Additionally, a quantitative study of habitat use showed that
opossums avoided sandhills and former agricultural lands compared to the proportion
of these habitats (Ryser 1990). Kissell and Kennedy (1992) in Tennessee, on the other
hand, did not find a correlation between habitat parameters and the number of
opossums trapped.
 The positive relationship of body size with home range size in males may also be
the result of increasing energetic needs of large individuals. The same explanation
may hold for the influence of body size on movements in females. The correlation
between home range size and movement in males may be related to the habitat. As was
shown, large home ranges tended to be associated with a greater portion of presumably
poor habitat in the range, which could force these opossums to travel farther to
compensate for the lower food density. In the future, field experiments involving the
feeding of selected individuals might help elucidate the relationships between temporal
and spatial food availability, energetic needs and home range size, movements, or
activity.


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