Seasonal variation in the home range size of the Eurasian beaver: do patterns vary across habitats?

Spatial use by animals is one of the most important topics in animal ecology, because the proper description of spatial patterns is essential for the better understanding of animal’s behaviour. Seasonal variation might reflect varying behavioural or energy balance requirements of the animals. Our aim was to test whether the space use of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) seasonally varies and whether the pattern comprises diverse habitats. We studied beaver’s spatial use from autumn to spring at three different habitats diverging in several environmental conditions. We captured, tagged and released 42 Eurasian beavers in three sites within the Czech Republic; 33 individuals were tracked during at least one season. From 2006 to 2010, a total of 5074 night locations were recorded during three consecutive seasons. We used 95 % of fixes in the appropriate season to determine seasonal space requirements; then, we estimated the effective sizes of utilised space, i.e. home ranges (HR95). The beaver’s HR95 sizes varied substantially among seasons, whereas the seasonal pattern was similar among different habitats. Our results revealed that spring HR95 were significantly larger than in other seasons; the smallest HR95 were observed in winter. The largest HR95 were observed in lowland floodplain forests; the smallest HR95 were found on sub-mountain hilly streams. In general, the mean HR95 was similar for different sexes and age classes. An overlap of spatial use between neighbouring home ranges was recorded in only one case.