Spatial organization of a riparian population of the carnivorous marsupial Dasyurus geoffroii

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Radiotracking and live‐trapping were used to describe spacing patterns of Dasyurus geoffroii along the Murray River in Western Australia. Both sexes are essentially solitary, and occupy numerous dens which define stable core areas. Female core areas typically showed little or no mutual overlap, suggesting that females are intrasexually territorial. As an exception to this, a non‐dispersing daughter may share her mother's core area and successfully rear young there. Transient females were rarely encountered, and vacant female core areas were eventually occupied by juveniles known to have been born on the study area. Male core areas were much larger than those of females, and overlapped broadly with those of other males as well as females. In captivity, females deposit scent by cloacal dragging in response to odours left by foreign conspecifics, and both sexes tend to defecate at sites already containing faeces. In the wild, faecal aggregations occurred throughout the areas used by Dasyurus, but were especially well developed in places where animal movements were likely to be concentrated, such as paths and river crossing points.