Book excerpt: What main factors affect mammalian home range size and dynamics? To what extent do constraints on home range characteristics vary between the sexes? This book aims to address these issues by concentrating the authors' expertise and experience in studies of home ranges in general and focusing on their studies of black bears of the Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, in particular. The authors provide an overview of the black bears and methods for their study before discussing concepts of home range, developing predictive habitat quality models, addressing influences of food production on social organization and exploring the mating behaviour of male bears.