Habitat use in a central Italy population ofTestudo hermanniGmelin (Reptilia Testudinidae)

Abstract

Extensive radiotracking of adult Testudo hermanni for 1 year, and regular inspections for 5 years, in a coastal area of central Italy, allowed us to assess the seasonal variation in mobility and home range size of both sexes, and their use of the different parts of home range. Males are more mobile than the females but, due to a different long-term movement pattern, they have a generally smaller home range. Both sexes show a marked seasonal variation in home range size, but no seasonal migrations. Wild rabbits burrows, and simple pallets under dense vegetation are repeatedly used as shelters by the same individual. The animals show a certain preference for specific basking areas in the midst of dense shrubbery. They feed mainly on vegetation common throughout the study area but special displacements in order to forage also occur. Mating encounters are based on home range overlapping between mates and high male mobility. Our findings and those of other authors on different populations of the same species suggest that these activities act together to produce the long-term home range stability observed in wild T. hermanni even though none of them is performed at a constant site.