I went hiking again in roughly the same area i went a few weeks ago (link) and saw only one HL on the hill I formerly saw three. I did see some sign of others though. Then I hiked a ridge adjacent where I saw none before and saw three new ones. I say this because they appeared to be females and the ones I saw last hike look like males.
My question about range are: What is the typical daily range (especially for coastals) and what is the total typical range during an HL's lifetime?
Part of my curiosity has to do with the gene pool and how the ability to "travel" affects it in any given area.
Any help is much appreciated. (Lester 
Cheers!
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Range question
cable_hogue
Jun 01, 2003 09:03 AM
Replies (1)
Les4toads
Jun 01, 2003 02:20 PM
Hello Cable. Coast HLs have a homerange, in undisturbed areas, of about 9138 plus/minus 2027 meter square. In human disturbed habitats, the homerange jumps to about 19,782 plus/minus 4117 meter square. There was no significant homerange difference between males or females. Mean number of sightings per HL at this point of monitoring was 35.2. So far, the findings of spatial utilization of homeranges in undisturbed and disturbed habitats is statistically significant. The sample size, at this point, is 579 HLs at 9 different localities. Two more sites are being added now to increase the sample size and distribution range in southern California. The HLs in undisturbed habitats had a significant dietary richness (17 plus differrent ant genus/species identified by scat analysis). The HLs in human disturbed areas had a dietary richness of only 3 to 5 different ant genus/species (ID by scat analysis). Other insects in diet were less than 2%. The HLs in disturbed areas display a significant decrease in body mass and body length for the same age classes.
The lifetime range of a HL, male or female, is in the analysis stages now. The genetic stagnation will be further assessed at that point. It is a known the without population interconection, the gene pool will stagnate and produce degredation within the population. In-breeding creates many problems also. HLs do not occupy micro- or macrohabitat with uniform distribution throughout the range. Many features, such as dietary richness, substrate requirements, predator-prey competition, and more, are not uniform.
I hope this gives you a little more info to your questions. If not, let me know and I will fill in what I can. Lester G. Milroy III
