Movements of wintering American marten (<i>Martes americana</i>): relative influences of prey activity and forest stand age

Vigeant-LangloisCharles,; DesrochersAndré,

doi:10.1139/x11-133

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…CWD provides subnival spaces that can be used by marten [ 69 ]. Subnival spaces are particularly important for prey accessibility and provide protection against predation, together with resting sites for thermoregulation [ 70 – 73 ]. Consequently, habitat use by marten is mainly dependent upon the internal structure of the forest [ 74 , 75 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study that was conducted in 2016 in New York State [ 77 ], however, showed that occupation of the territory by the fisher was positively influenced by proportions of coniferous and mixedwood forests, but negatively affected by the density and proportion of agricultural environments. Like marten, the fisher likely would be more dependent upon the structure of the forest than on the age or type of settlement [ 22 , 73 – 75 ]. Participants also pointed out that mustelid habitats were especially consistent with those of their main prey: snowshoe hares, squirrels and other small mammals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge

Suffice

Asselin

Imbeau

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundMonitoring of fur-bearing species populations is relatively rare due to their low densities. In addition to catch data, trappers’ experience provides information on the ecology and status of the harvested species. Fisher (Pekania pennanti) and American marten (Martes americana) are mustelids that are sensitive to forest management and therefore considered to be ecological indicators of forest health. Fisher populations have increased in eastern North America since the early 2000s and this could have resulted in a northeastern extension of the species’ range and increased overlap with marten’s range. Moreover, habitats of both species are subject to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The objective of this study was to document the knowledge held by local trappers in the northern area of sympatry between fisher and marten to identify factors that could explain variation in populations of the two species and interactions between them.MethodForty-one semi-directed interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous trappers in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of western Quebec (Canada), at the northern limit of the overlapping ranges of the two mustelid species.ResultsTrappers highlighted the lack of exclusivity of marten and fisher to coniferous forests, although marten is more closely associated with them than is fisher. Fisher apparently also takes advantage of open environments, including agroforestry systems. Moreover, climate change increases the frequency of freeze-thaw events that cause the formation of an ice crust on the snow surface, which favors fisher movements.ConclusionThe fisher was identified as a competitor and even a predator of the marten. Furthermore, the fisher is less affected than the marten by forest management, and it also seems to benefit from climate change to a greater extent.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge

Suffice

Asselin

Imbeau

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Functional habitat loss relative to seismic lines has also been shown in woodland caribou [ 11 ], and relative to well pads in mule deer [ 30 , 95 ]. However, marten use cut block edges for travel and hunting at least proportionally to availability [ 53 , 96 ] elsewhere.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Marten Respond to Seismic Lines in Northern Canada at Two Spatial Scales

2015

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Development of hydrocarbon resources across northwest Canada has spurred economic prosperity and generated concerns over impacts to biodiversity. To balance these interests, numerous jurisdictions have adopted management thresholds that allow for limited energy development but minimize undesirable impacts to wildlife. Used for exploration, seismic lines are the most abundant linear feature in the boreal forest and exist at a variety of widths and recovery states. We used American marten (Martes americana) as a model species to measure how line attributes influence species’ response to seismic lines, and asked whether responses to individual lines trigger population impacts. Marten response to seismic lines was strongly influenced by line width and recovery state. Compared to forest interiors, marten used open seismic lines ≥ 3 m wide less often, but used open lines ≤ 2 m wide and partially recovered lines ≥ 6 m wide similarly. Marten response to individual line types appeared to trigger population impacts. The probability of occurrence at the home range scale declined with increasing seismic line density, and the inclusion of behavioral response to line density calculations improved model fit. In our top performing model, we excluded seismic lines ≤ 2 m from our calculation of line density, and the probability of occurrence declined > 80% between home ranges with the lowest and highest line densities. Models that excluded seismic lines did not strongly explain occurrence. We show how wildlife-derived metrics can inform regulatory guidelines to increase the likelihood those guidelines meet intended management objectives. With respect to marten, not all seismic lines constitute disturbances, but avoidance of certain line types scales to population impacts. This approach provides the ecological context required to understand cause and effect relationships among socio-economic and ecological conservation goals.

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“…In winter, martens hunt mostly large prey such as Northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus), American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), and snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) [38] and feed on microtine rodents only incidentally [39]. In our study area, squirrels and hares occurred in similar densities in young, regenerating, and old forest stands [40] and thus prey density in forest is unlikely to have affected our results. However, the lack of foraging opportunities in open areas may have increased movement cost in these habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Modelling Marten (Martes americana) Movement Costs in a Boreal Forest: Effects of Grain Size and Thematic Resolution

Planckaert

Desrochers

2012

International Journal of Ecology

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We investigated landscape resistance to movements of American marten (Martes americana) based on snow-tracking data. We generated movement cost maps of the study area with different grain size, thematic resolution, and habitat-specific resistance to movements. We compared simulated tracks obtained from resistance maps to real tracks plotted along transects that we surveyed in winters 2004 to 2008 at the Montmorency Forest, Quebec, Canada. Simulated tracks were located at the intersection between least-cost paths simulated across the study area and transects. We used nearest-neighbour distances between simulated and real tracks to assess the performance of resistance maps and estimate landscape resistance parameters. Simulations with specified costs to movement for open areas, young forest, and mature forest performed better than simpler resistance scenarios, suggesting that resistance to marten movements differed among those landscape attributes that were considered. Simulations with a map grain size of 100 m performed significantly better than 5, 25, and 300 m, possibly because of gap crossing avoidance. Model performance (compared to null model) was maximal when resistance to movement in open habitat was set to 20 times higher than in mature forest, but uncertainty around this estimate was large. This research demonstrates that presence-only (point) data can be used to parameterize movements using spatially explicit modelling.

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Movements of wintering American marten (Martes americana): relative influences of prey activity and forest stand age

Cited by 13 publications

References 28 publications

More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge

More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge

American Marten Respond to Seismic Lines in Northern Canada at Two Spatial Scales

Modelling Marten (Martes americana) Movement Costs in a Boreal Forest: Effects of Grain Size and Thematic Resolution

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