132 Cathryn H. Greenberg and Michael R. Pelton 



the amount of time required for foraging and temporal activity 

 patterns might be expected to change in relation to seasonal food 

 availability and/or type. 



We obtained concurrent data on food habits, home range, and 

 activity patterns for gray foxes (Greenberg et al. 1988), which provided 

 an opportunity to compare seasonal shifts in dietary trophic level with 

 changes in home-range size. We predicted that home-range size would 

 become smaller as fruit became seasonally available (spring-fall) and 

 would expand in response to a presumably scarcer (predominantly 

 flesh) winter food supply. We also compared reproductive seasons, 

 sex, and age with home-range size. 



METHODS 



Study Area — The study area was located within the National 

 Environmental Research Park on the Department of Energy's Oak 

 Ridge Reservation, approximately 28 km west of Knoxville, Tennessee 

 (35°58' N, 84°56' W). Vegetation community types included pine and 

 pine-hardwood forests, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations, eastern 

 red cedar {Juniperus virginiana) barrens, oak-hickory forests, bottomland 

 hardwood forests, old fields, and developed areas. The Tennessee 

 Valley Authority's Melton Hill Reservoir and Watts Bar Lake border 

 the reservation on the west, south, and east; streams and springs 

 throughout the area provided water and wetland habitat. 



The geology of the reservation is characteristic of the Southern 

 Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province. Parallel, southwest-northeast- 

 oriented ridges separated by valleys (elevation ranged from 226 to 

 413 m) lend additional diversity to the landscape. 



Radio Telemetry — Foxes were captured in Number 1.5 Victor 

 soft-catch leg-hold traps with dirt-hole sets and drags. Attractants 

 included fox urine, fox gland lures, pork cracklings, fish oil, and 

 muskrat oil. Foxes were anesthetized with 5-10 mg/kg ketamine 

 hydrochloride (Ketaset) or not anesthetized (Nicholson 1982). 

 Animals were eartagged, fitted with radio collars equipped with a 

 mercury tip-switch activity sensor (Telonics, Mesa, Arizona) in the 

 150-151.84 frequency range, and released at the trap site. We classified 

 foxes as subadults (<l-year-old) or adults based on tooth wear 

 (Geir 1968). 



There were 138 receiving stations established. Animals were 

 located with a four-element, hand-held, Yagi antenna and a portable 

 receiver. Locations and activities were recorded at 2-hour intervals 

 between the hours of 1600 and 0800 weekly. Occasional locations 

 were also recorded between 0800 and 1600. We used >2 compass 



