Abstract
Size and spatial distribution of home ranges of the Japanese shrew-mole Urotrichus talpoides were studied by live-trapping in a mature mixed (broadleaved and coniferous) forest in Chiba Prefecture, Honshu. During the non-breeding season, no significant differences in home range size were found between sexes. The home ranges of breeding males were significantly larger than those of non-breeding males, while no significant differences were found in range size between non-breeding and breeding females. During the nonbreeding season, home ranges were mutually exclusive among individuals of the same sex, but overlapped extensively with those of the opposite sex. In the breeding season, male ranges largely overlapped each other. Female ranges also overlapped each other, but to a lesser extent. The tolerance between the sexes during the non-breeding season is unusual in comparison with other mole and shrew species, whose individual ranges are exclusive to each other irrespective of sex.
