The bind of the burrow: trade-offs between refuge and foraging shape space use in Kalahari meerkats

The understanding of habitat selection in wild vertebrates has been heavily influenced by observations of preferred foraging areas. However, foraging is only one of many ways animals interact with their environment, and preferences for habitat features that support resting, breeding and safety, along with trade-offs between these needs, remain underexplored. These trade-offs are likely to be particularly acute in complex environments where these needs are met in different locations. Using long-term data on group movements and individual life histories, we examine how preferences for foraging areas and burrow sites shape space use in Kalahari meerkats, Suricata suricatta. Meerkats rarely dig new sleeping and breeding burrows and must use those abandoned by other species, potentially generating trade-offs in daily space use if overnight refuges are far from optimal foraging areas. We show that space use is strongly anchored by burrow location, with burrows in white-sand habitats, particularly those in dry riverbed and pan habitats, preferred year-round while also being associated with low burrow switching rates. In contrast, foraging habitat preferences varied seasonally, with white-sand habitats often being disfavoured during foraging. Individuals also gained less weight in both wet and dry seasons when their morning foraging was concentrated in these habitats. As a result, meerkats faced a trade-off between optimal burrow locations and productive foraging grounds, which was reflected in faster, longer and more energetically costly travel when moving through or waking up in white-sand areas. Our results suggest that changes in the distribution or abundance of key burrow-constructing species in desert environments may have cascading effects on the many secondary burrow users that depend on them for survival and reproduction. More broadly, our results highlight that refuge availability can impose strong ecological constraints on animals and may restrict behavioural plasticity under environmental change, particularly if productive foraging areas shift.