Abstract. For a continuous function g ≥ 0 on (0, +∞) (which may be singular at zero), we confront a quasilinear elliptic differential operator with natural growth in ∇u, −∆u + g(u)|∇u| 2 , with a power type nonlinearity, λu p + f 0 (x). The range of values of the parameter λ for which the associated homogeneous Dirichlet boundary value problem admits positive solutions depends on the behavior of g and on the exponent p. Using bifurcations techniques we deduce sufficient conditions for the boundedness or unboundedness of the cited range.