Remaining in a familiar area is safer than leaving. For young three-toed sloths, for instance, the motivation is familiar food. The sloths inherit the ability to detoxify and digest leaves of specific trees. They learn the location of those trees as they travel around with their mothers. When a young female becomes old enough to travel on her own, the mother bequeaths her a portion of her home range.
Familiarity can also increase a young female's chance of breeding successfully.
Among leopards whose cubs are regularly killed by lions, hyenas and even male leopards knowing where to find safe den sites can mean the difference between life and death. Secure den sites such as rock crevices and caves, or tunnels beneath tangled tree roots, are vitally important refuges for young, which must be left alone for many hours while their mothers hunt. Young females learn the location of these safe dens while they are growing up and often give birth in den sites where they themselves were born. For all the interest in leopards, Waser thinks philopatry may turn out to be more common in species such as beavers, wood rats and kangaroo rats animals in which females make large investments in their ranges. Kangaroo rats live in large mounds that take months to build and may contain up to six kilograms of stored seed.