Seasonal diet of pine marten Martes martes in southern boreal Sweden

Helldin, Jan Olof

doi:10.4098/at.arch.00-40

Cited by 42 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Helldin 2000;Caryl 2008) and southern Europe (e.g. Marchesi and Mermod 1989;Clevenger 1993b), while, in our study area, hares and Eastern cottontails totalled about 18% of pine marten diet (%RFO ≈15).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…45%; Zalewski 2004). Fruit (Marchesi and Mermod 1989), birds (Helldin 2000) and invertebrates (Clevenger 1993a) may sometimes represent the most frequent food item, while mediumand large-size mammals (lagomorphs and ungulate carrion) generally constitute secondary prey at high latitudes (Zalewski 2004). Amphibians (Reig and Jedrzejewski 1988), fish (Lockie 1961) and crustaceans (Ruiz-Olmo and Nadal 1991) are eaten only occasionally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Nonetheless, while pine marten diet has been largely studied in boreal and deciduous forests (Marchesi and Mermod 1989;Jędrzejewski et al 1993;Helldin 2000), in field-forest mosaics it has still been poorly studied (Posluszny et al 2007). The recent expansion of the pine marten in northwestern Italy offers the opportunity to investigate the feeding adaptability of a typical forest-dwelling predator in heavily human-altered agricultural lowlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food habits of genetically identified pine marten (Martes martes) expanding in agricultural lowlands (NW Italy)

et al. 2011

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We assessed the diet of pine marten (Martes martes) expanding in the heavily human-altered agricultural plain of the River Po, northern Italy. Between February 2008 and November 2009, surveys were carried out twice a week during seasonal sampling sessions of three to four consecutive weeks. To distinguish the faecal samples from those of sympatric carnivores, a polymerase chain reactionrestriction fragment length polymorphism method was applied. The availability of small mammals was assessed by the analysis of 59 barn owl (Tyto alba) pellets. A total of 109 pine marten faeces were analysed. Its diet consisted of fruit, rodents, lagomorphs and birds. Seasonal variation occurred for fruit, which prevailed in summer, and rodents, which were more preyed upon in autumn. In winter, the diet of the pine marten was almost totally based on vertebrates, and lagomorphs were the main source of protein in summer. Use of small mammals differed significantly from their availability, voles, particularly bank vole Myodes glareolus, being preferred to mice (Apodemus sp.) and rats (Rattus sp.). Medium-size mammals formed about 18% of pine marten diet, a value generally reported for high-latitude habitats. In agricultural areas, the pine marten proved to be an opportunistic predator, able to face the reduced availability of small mammals by preying upon medium-size prey and fruit.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food habits of genetically identified pine marten (Martes martes) expanding in agricultural lowlands (NW Italy)

et al. 2011

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“…Because of this, the generalists have the ability to transmit the cyclic population dynamics of voles to their alternative prey populations [18,19]. According to diet analyses, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the pine marten (Martes martes) are generalist predators in Fennoscandia [10,11]. They are thus expected to have a cycle-dampening effect [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Practically all terrestrial carnivores in northern Europe consume voles at least occasionally, and the following predators show a clear preference for voles: the small mustelids [9], the red fox [10], the pine marten [11] and several owl and raptor species [12,13]. The small mustelids, the least weasel (Mustela nivalis nivalis) and the stoat (Mustela erminea) are key predators in the boreal vole cycle [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predator–vole interactions in northern Europe: the role of small mustelids revised

Korpela

Helle

Henttonen³

et al. 2014

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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The cyclic population dynamics of vole and predator communities is a key phenomenon in northern ecosystems, and it appears to be influenced by climate change. Reports of collapsing rodent cycles have attributed the changes to warmer winters, which weaken the interaction between voles and their specialist subnivean predators. Using population data collected throughout Finland during 1986-2011, we analyse the spatio-temporal variation in the interactions between populations of voles and specialist, generalist and avian predators, and investigate by simulations the roles of the different predators in the vole cycle. We test the hypothesis that vole population cyclicity is dependent on predator -prey interactions during winter. Our results support the importance of the small mustelids for the vole cycle. However, weakening specialist predation during winters, or an increase in generalist predation, was not associated with the loss of cyclicity. Strengthening of delayed density dependence coincided with strengthening small mustelid influence on the summer population growth rates of voles. In conclusion, a strong impact of small mustelids during summers appears highly influential to vole population dynamics, and deteriorating winter conditions are not a viable explanation for collapsing small mammal population cycles.

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Pine marten predation of common goldeneye nests: Effects of cavity age and habitat override any effect of microtine rodent abundance

Sonerud,

Grønlien,

Steen

2023

Ecology and Evolution

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According to the alternative prey hypothesis (APH), the temporal synchrony in population fluctuations of microtine rodents and other small herbivores in boreal areas is caused by generalist predators with numerical and functional response to microtines, leading to an increased predation of prey alternative to microtines in the low phase of the microtine population fluctuations. The tree‐climbing pine marten (Martes martes) is a food generalist that includes bird eggs among its alternative prey, also eggs of the cavity‐nesting common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). We used long‐term data to test whether pine marten predation of goldeneye eggs in nest boxes varied as predicted by the APH. As a measure of microtine abundance at the time of nesting, we applied two measures. First, for goldeneye nests located <40 km from our microtine trapping site, we applied the trapping index of microtine rodents. Second, to also use data from nests located >40 km from our microtine trapping site, and from nests in years when trapping was not conducted, we used two proxies for the microtine abundance: whether boreal owls (Aegolius funereus) nested in any of our boxes <40 km from each goldeneye nest and the average clutch size of these boreal owls. The probability of predation of a goldeneye nest was independent of the microtine trapping index and independent of the proxies for microtine abundance. However, it increased with cavity age, taken as the number of nesting seasons elapsed since the actual nest box was installed, and declined with distance from habitat with forest canopy. The effect of cavity age confirms that the long‐term spatial memory of pine marten is an important factor in the pattern of its predation on nests in tree cavities.

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Seasonal diet of pine marten Martes martes in southern boreal Sweden

Cited by 42 publications

References 19 publications

Food habits of genetically identified pine marten (Martes martes) expanding in agricultural lowlands (NW Italy)

Food habits of genetically identified pine marten (Martes martes) expanding in agricultural lowlands (NW Italy)

Predator–vole interactions in northern Europe: the role of small mustelids revised

Pine marten predation of common goldeneye nests: Effects of cavity age and habitat override any effect of microtine rodent abundance

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