“Reversed” intraguild predation: red fox cubs killed by pine marten

Abstract

Camera traps deployed at a badger Meles meles set in mixed pine forest in north-eastern Poland recorded interspecific killing of red fox Vulpes vulpes cubs by pine marten Martes martes. The vixen and her cubs settled in the set at the beginning of May 2013, and it was abandoned by the badgers shortly afterwards. Five fox cubs were recorded playing in front of the den each night. Ten days after the first recording of the foxes, a pine marten was filmed at the set; it arrived in the morning, made a reconnaissance and returned at night when the vixen was away from the set. The pine marten entered the den several times and killed at least two fox cubs. It was active at the set for about 2 h. This observation proves that red foxes are not completely safe from predation by smaller carnivores, even those considered to be subordinate species in interspecific competition.

Lethal interactions among forest‐grouse predators are numerous, motivated by hunger and carcasses, and their impacts determined by the demographic value of the victims

“…(1995) were found buried and uneaten, and in Belarus, only three out of the 11 martens killed were eaten (73% uneaten; Sidorovich, 2011). A single case of reversed intraguild predation (i.e., pine marten killing red fox cubs) has been observed in a mixed‐pine forest of north‐east Poland (Brzeziński et al., 2014).…”