Understanding the social organization and acquisition of potential home ranges in solitary polygamous mammals is important for their management and conservation. However, such information requires a continuous long-term study. Therefore, limited information is available for mammals from South Asia. We studied the western most distributed Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) population of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (RTR), Rajasthan, India, intensively during 2005–2011 using direct observation and intensive camera trapping-based methods. We examined how the home ranges of deceased tigers would be filled. Nine home ranges of tigers were vacated (two males and seven females) because of death, translocation, emigration and dispersal. Vacated female home ranges were filled by neighbouring tigers; 57% of neighbouring females were related to each other and after females vacated their ranges, their daughters acquired these home ranges. Mother tigers shared their home ranges with their daughters to increase the reproductive success of the latter. The home range of adult male tiger (TM-02) was estimated to be 73 sq. km using camera traps. Vacated male home ranges were filled by four transient individuals that were not related to each other. These data help understand the social organization and land tenure system of tigers in semi-arid habitats of India.
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