Stone marten (Martes foina) habitat in a Mediterranean ecosystem: effects of scale, sex, and interspecific interactions

Abstract

Mediterranean ecosystems are inherently patchy, challenging habitat-use behavior. Certain mammalian carnivores take advantage of this patchiness by a strategy of habitat complementation/supplementation, which is invariant to the scale of analysis. To test if the same behavior is adopted by the stone marten, we used a combined data set of capture and radio-tracking data at three scales of analysis (1-m, 25-m, and 452-m radius plots). We used compositional analysis to test if there were sex-specific differences in foraging and resting habitat use of stone martens and if these patterns were affected by the presence of other mesocarnivores. Our results showed that stone martens are found both in rural and forested landscapes. Foraging and resting activities occurred far from roads in large and complex patches of cork oak woodlands, riparian vegetation, orchards, and pastureland. Use varied with the scale of analysis and the sex. At smaller scales, females use pastures for foraging and orchards for resting, whereas riparian vegetation and sparse cork oak forests influenced this use at larger scales. Males, on the other hand, were more consistent across scales, using riparian areas and dense cork oak woodlands for foraging and pastures for resting. Stone martens shared the same areas with other coexisting mesocarnivores. Stone martens use cork oak woodlands and complement/ supplement this use with other land cover types. The consistent use of cork oak woodlands across scales emphasizes the importance of this land cover to the preservation of functional Mediterranean ecosystems in southern Portugal.

The NATURA 2000 database as a tool in the analysis of habitat selection at large scales: factors affecting the occurrence of pine and stone martens in Southern Europe

“…In the study, we included only areas in the N2K network that are more or less natural ecosystems, and therefore, intensely urbanised and human-modified habitats were not analysed. Thus, we did not show the stone marten's strong preferences for urban areas, as these have been found in other studies (Santos and Santos-Reis 2010;Vergara et al 2016).…”

“…The study of Rondinini and Boitani (2002), based on observations of radio-collared stone martens in the Apennines (Italy), indicated a higher proportion of woodlands and a lower proportion of arable land within their home ranges, compared with random locations. Whereas other studies in Southern Europe have shown that stone martens avoid forests and prefer areas with higher proportions of cultivated land (Sacchi and Meriggi 1995;Vergara et al 2016), other studies have indicated the importance of mosaic habitats (forest, agriculture land and rural areas) for the stone marten (Virgós et al 2000;Rondinini and Boitani 2002;Santos and Santos-Reis 2010). These discrepancies may result either from local differences in habitat preferences and availability of suitable environments or from the methods used for estimating the presence/absence of study species.…”

Testing remotely-sensed predictors of meso-carnivore habitat use in Mediterranean ecosystems

“…Animals were monitored using two types of surveys, (1) focal samples-when the animal was located continuously for 24 h or while active; and (2) daily locations, either at day or night, to obtain locations of the animal in their resting sites or when active. The first type of survey was conducted using triangulation, whereas the second was through homing-in procedures (for details see Santos-Reis et al 2004;Rosalino et al 2005b;Santos and Santos-Reis 2009). Radio-tracking data was entered into Tracker (Camponotus AB and Radio Location Systems AB 1994) and bearings and distances were converted to easting and northing locations.…”

“…We selected as focal species three co-occurring mesocarnivores, the stone marten (Martes foina), the common genet (Genetta genetta), and the European badger (Meles meles), because these species have different patterns of habitat use (e.g. Santos and Santos-Reis 2009;Soto and Palomares 2015), at a scale that matches that of aerial photography and Landsat satellite data. The marten and the genet are arboreal and solitary, and the badger is cursorial, ground dwelling and social; all of them are nocturnal and omnivorous (Gittleman 1989).…”

“…The marten and the genet are arboreal and solitary, and the badger is cursorial, ground dwelling and social; all of them are nocturnal and omnivorous (Gittleman 1989). We predicted that incorporating different descriptors extracted from the Landsat imagery will be more informative than ecosystem type alone (from land cover classifications), since these species use multiple ecosystems for different resources/activities (Rosalino et al 2004(Rosalino et al , 2005bSantos-Reis et al 2004;Santos and Beier 2008;Santos and Santos-Reis 2009), require cover for their movements and resting (Rosalino et al 2004(Rosalino et al , 2005cLoureiro et al 2007), and use fruits as important food resources (Rosalino et al 2005a;Santos et al 2007;Santos-Reis 2002, 2008), all of which are features detectable by remote sensing imagery.…”