8/12/2019 1-1998-007

1/4

( )Journal of A rid Env ironments 1998 40: 109112Article No. ae980433

Ra nge s ize and hab i t at u s e of an adu lt m al e

ca r a c a l in n o r t h e r n S a u d i Ar a b i a

Yolanda M. van H eezik & Philip J. Seddon

N ational W ildlife R esearch Center, N ational Commission forW ildlife Conservation and Development, P.O. Box,

1086, T aif, S audi Arabia

( )Received 5 January 1998, accepted 4 June 1998

Between March 1996 and January 1997 an adult male caracal was radio-t rackedin the northern steppe desert of Saudi Arabia. Total home range, using the95% minimum convex polygon method from 65 locations, increased from 270km2 in winter and spring to 448 km2 by the end of summer, reaching1116 km2 by January 1997. The caracal fed on camel Camelus dromedarusandgazelle Gazella subgutturosacarcasses, and killed and ate a steppe eagle Aquila

( )nipalensis; the faeces contained rodent bones M erionessp. and Gerbillussp. .Diurnal resting areas had higher densities of small mammals than randomsites. Low prey biomass in a very arid environment probably necessitated the

large movements made by this individual.

1998 Academic Press

Keywords: caracal; Saudi Arabia; radio-tracking; range; habitat; Caracalcaracal

Introduction

The solitary, nocturnal life style of caracals Caracal caracal has meant few fieldobservations have been made on this widely distributed, medium-sized felid. On theArabian Peninsula, C. c. schmitzi probably doesnt penetrate far into the great sanddeserts of the interior, but occurs throughout the mountain ranges and hilly steppe

( )regions where it is persecuted by livestock herders Harrison, 1991.In this paper we describe the movements of an adult male caracal which was

radio-tracked for 11 months in the Harrat al-Harrah Reserve in northern Saudi Arabia( ) 2 ( )Fig. 1. The approx. 12,000 km reserve comprises fields of basalt rock harrat ,vegetated wadis, silty depressions, gravel hills and rocky hills. Sheep and goats areexcluded from the reserve, but as many as 7000 untended camels graze freely. The

(reserve protects a small population of sand gazelles Gaz ella subgutturosa approx. 1300)individuals . Annual rainfall is usually less than 80 mm, and there is no standing waterthroughout most of the year. Caracal were previously considered to be certainly now

( )extinct in this northern region Green, 1986; their continued presence was confirmedonly when this individual was trapped.

0140196398010109 04 $30.000 Academic Press

8/12/2019 1-1998-007

2/4

Y. M. VAN H EEZIK & P. J. SEDD ON110

Fig u r e 1 . Distribution of caracal locations in Harrat al-Harrah, Saudi Arabia. Arrows indicateoutlying locations.

Methods

(In F ebruary 1996 an adult male caracal was caught in a padded leghold trap Victor)Softcatch No. 3 . It was anaesthetised by intra-muscular injection of ketamine and

( )medetomidine, weighted and fitted with a radio-collar AVM Inst. Co., U.S.A. .Anaesthesia was reversed with atipamezol after about 90 min. Locations accurate towithin approx. 20 m were obtained from a single-engine plane, usually between dawnand 0900h. These represented daytime resting sites rather than foraging movements,

. .( )which were strictly nocturnal. An average of 5 8 3 7, N 11 locations wereobtained each month.

(Range was calculated using the 95% minimum convex polygon method White &)Garrott, 1990. The effect of the number of locations on range was examined by

stepwise calculation of areas of range polygons, including successive groups of fiveradio locations.

Location site habitat was described on 46 occasions. Proportions of habitats in the( )reserve were determined in another study van Heezik & Seddon, in press. The

relative abundance of rodents was assessed at 14 resting sites by counting active burrowmounds. The relationship between the number of burrowing rodents and the number

( )of mounds was determined by trapping in 1 ha grids N 7 , and concurrentlycounting the number of active mounds. Sherman live-traps were set at burrowentrances and checked morning and evening for 4 days and nights. Small mammals

were identified to species, marked and released on site. A significant positive relationshipwas found between the number of rodent mounds counted and the number of.(individuals trapped Spearman Rank Correlation, corrected for ties, r 0 927, N 7,s

. )p 0 01 . Most common species were M erionus libycus, M. crassus and Gerbilluscheesmani. Caracal diet was assessed visually by examining faeces.

8/12/2019 1-1998-007

3/4

8/12/2019 1-1998-007

4/4

Y. M. VAN H EEZIK & P. J. SEDD ON112

Table 1. Observed range size of male carcals

Range size No.2( )Region km individuals Source

( )Cape Province 418 1 Norton & Lawson 1985. (Southern South Africa 15 2 7 Moolman 1986; in Bothma

( ))& Le Riche 1994.( ) (Southern South Africa 1994 26 9 2 Avenant 1993; in Bothma

( ))& Le Riche 1994

.( ) ( )Southern K alahari 1994 308 4 1 Bothma & L eRiche 1994Northern Saudi Arabia 1116 1 present study

A young dispersing male.

the caracal for shelter during the day. Basalt boulder fields, which cover half of thereserve and provide limited shelter, were used only 17% of the time and hills and

(gravel plains were avoided, the former possibly because of the presence of wolves pers.)obsv. and the latter because of the lack of cover.

We thank HRH Prince Saud Al Faisal and Prof. A. H. Abuzinada for supporting Al Harrahresearch, J. D. Skinner for constructive criticism, and special thanks to Captain HansHemmingsen without whose efforts and enthusiasm this study would not have been possible.

References

( )Bothma, duP., J . & LeRiche, E.A.N. 1994 . Range use by an adult male caracal in the southernKalahari. K oedoe, 37: 105108.

( )Bothma, duP., Knight, M .H., LeRiche, E.A.N. & van H ensbergen, H .J. 1997 . Range size ofsouthern Kalahari leopards. S outh A frician J ournal of W ildlife R esearch, 27: 9499.

( )Green, A.A. 1986 . Status of large mammals in northern Saudi Arabia. Mammalia, 50: 483493.( ) ( )Harrison, D. L . & Bates, P. J. J. 1991 .T he Mammals of A rabia 2nd Edn . Sevenoaks, England:

Harrison Zoological Museum. 354 pp.( )Norton, P.M. & Lawson, A.B. 1985 . Radio tracking of leopards and caracals in the Stellenbosch

area, Cape Province. S outh A frician Journal of W ildlife Research, 15: 1724.( )van Heezik, Y. & Seddon, P.J. in press . Seasonal changes in habitat use by H oubara Bustards

[ ]Chlamydotis undulata macqueeniiin northern Saudi Arabia. Ibis.

( )Wacher, T . 1996 . G azelle and camel survey, H arrat al-Harrah protected area, Saudi Arabia.Unpublished report, K ing Khaled Wildlife Research Center, Riyadh. 3 pp.

( )White, G.C. & Garrot, R.A. 1990 . A nalysis of W ildlife Radio-tracking Data. London: AcademicPress. 383 pp.