Habitat richness affects home range size in a monogamous large rodent

• Home range size of crested porcupines was significantly and negatively associated to habitat richness.
• Natural foragers travelled significantly greater distances to reach feeding grounds and had larger home range sizes.
• Crop foragers had dens significantly closer to cultivated fields.

In monogamous species, after pair formation, the main reason for ranging movements is not searching for a mate, but for other important resources e.g. food. We monitored a total of 20 radio-tagged adult, paired crested porcupines in four areas of different habitat richness. No sexual size dimorphism was assessed. Body mass and habitat richness showed collinearity. For both sexes, home range size was correlated to habitat richness, with a significant inverse exponential regression. Opposite to natural foragers, living in poor habitats, crop foragers had smaller home ranges, with their dens significantly closer to cultivations. Both availability of food resources and den sites are key variables to determine home range size.