MICROHABITAT USE AND HOME-RANGE CHARACTERISTICS OF BLUNT-NOSED LEOPARD LIZARDS

We used radiotelemetry to determine habitat use and home range charact eristics of 16 blunt-nosed leopard lizards (Gambelia sila) at two site s on the Naval Petroleum Reserves in California. Space use parameters of eight lizards occupying an area of relatively dense vegetation in 1 982 and eight lizards inhabiting a sparsely vegetated site in 1984 wer e compared. Home range size, core area size, and amount of overlap of ranges did not differ significantly between sites. The difference in a verage home range size between males (4.24 ha) and females (2.02 ha) w as borderline significant (P = 0.054). Female home ranges and core are as were overlapped extensively by male ranges ((x) over bar = 79.8% an d 50.3%, respectively). There was no evidence of intrasexual overlap o f core areas. Male home ranges overlapped the ranges of up to four oth er males but female ranges did not overlap one another. At the more de nsely vegetated site, leopard lizards used washes significantly more t han grassland, floodplain, and road habitats and they used grassland s ignificantly less than other habitats, At the sparsely vegetated site, grassland was used more than wash habitat and hills were used less th an all other habitats. Our data indicate that leopard lizard activity is concentrated in washes and other open areas when herbaceous cover i s dense, but they are capable of utilizing the more extensive grasslan d habitat if vegetation is sufficiently sparse. Creating open space wi thin the grassland habitat may have important management implications for this species in some areas.