WASSMER ET AL.: SOUTH-CENTRAL FLORIDA BOBCAT ECOLOGY


trailed or seen along or close to the edge of the home range, tracks were found
that suggested that it had been in contact with M8. No signs of fighting were
noted, but on all occasions of apparent contact between these individuals there
were many, frequently overlapping, tracks scattered over a wide area. Tracks
of the juvenile were not seen in the area following the last of the apparent
contacts with M8, suggesting that it may have dispersed. If this interpretation
is correct, its dispersal may have been hastened by the contacts with the adult
male.
 The number and complexity of social and ecological factors that may
potentially affect home range size and configuration, the small number of
bobcats studied, and the relatively high turn-over of adults leading to
considerable instability of the population during a major part of the study make
it difficult to partition the causes of the observed variation in home range size
and spatial relationships. However, death of individuals, relationships between
adult males and females, and the mother-young relationship appeared to be
important factors affecting the spatial organization of the population. Death of
a resident influenced home range size of adjacent individuals of the same sex.
Bailey (1972) and Miller (1980) also observed marked expansion of home
ranges of neighboring bobcats of the same sex upon the death or
disappearance of a resident. In contrast, however, Anderson (1986) reported
that a male that shifted his home range into the area previously occupied by an
experimentally removed male exhibited decreased home range size following
the shift. Seasonal changes in range size of individual bobcats also have been
reported by Buie et al. (1979), Kitchings and Story (1979), Lembeck (1978),
and Zezulak and Schwab (1979).
 The low degree of male-male and female-female home range overlap
observed in this study indicates that residents of the same sex occupied
mutually exclusive ranges. Similar range separation of adjacent same-sexed
individuals also has been reported elsewhere in the range (Bailey 1972 in
Idaho, Brittell et al. 1979 in Washington, Buie et al. 1979 in South Carolina).
Erickson and Hamilton (1980) in Missouri, Lawhead (1978) in Arizona, and
Lembeck (1978) in California reported that males showed substantial range
overlap while females did not, whereas in another California study both males
and females showed substantial range overlap (Zezulak and Schwab 1979). In
contrast, male and female ranges usually exhibit extensive overlap (Berg 1979,
Brittell et al. 1979, Buie et al. 1979, Erickson and Hamilton 1980, Karpowitz
and Flinders 1979, Kitchings and Story 1979, Marshall 1969, Miller 1980). In
this study the home range of a female usually was contained within a larger
male range. This configuration apparently reflected a persistent, loose pair
bond, the individuals not only associating together for mating but also
maintaining social integration during the nonbreeding season. Such a
relationship appears to fit Kleiman's (1977) definition of facultative
monogamy. In the cases in which a single male home range overlapped the