Seasonal spatial behaviour of pine marten Martes martes in a deciduous oak forest of central Italy

Anomalous coloration in European pine marten Martes martes in Elba Island, Central Italy

Evidence of abnormal coloration in wild animals provides useful information to better understand its adaptive function and its impact on survival. For this reason, we need to know the frequency and distribution of these abnormal phenotypes in wild populations. Here, we report two records of hypopigmentation in European pine marten Martes martes, obtained during a camera-trapping survey on Elba Island, Central Italy. We do not know what has caused anomalous coloration of pine marten on Elba Island, but it is possible that the inbreeding may have played a role in this isolated population. Although the light coloration certainly entails an increased visibility of pine martens, it is possible that the low predator pressure and the absence of other wild carnivore populations in our study could mitigate the mortality risk due to the light phenotype. The increased use of camera traps across the world can potentially facilitate the discovery of cases of anomalous colorations in wild populations, providing an unprecedented insight into the occurrence of this phenomenon in wild mammal species.

Postrelease movement and habitat selection of translocated pine martens Martes martes

Monitoring postrelease establishment and movement of animals is important in evaluating conservation translocations. We translocated 39 wild pine martens Martes martes (19 females, 20 males) from Scotland to Wales. We released them into forested areas with no conspecifics in 2015, followed by a second release in 2016, alongside the previously released animals. We used radio-tracking to describe postrelease movement and habitat selection. Six martens (15%) were not re-encountered during the tracking period, of which four undertook long-distance dispersal. For the remaining individuals, we characterized two phases of movement, "exploration" followed by "settlement," that differed between releases. In the first release, martens remained in exploration phase for a mean of 14.5 days (SE = 3.9 days) and settled at a mean distance of 8.7 km (SE = 1.8 km) from release sites, whereas martens released in year two, alongside resident conspecifics, traveled away from release sites at a faster rate, settling sooner, at a mean of 6.6 days (SE = 1.8 days), but further, at a mean distance of 14.0 km (SE = 1.7 km) from release sites. Animals released in year one did not exhibit habitat preferences overall but within forests they favored recently felled areas, whereas animals released in year two showed strong selection for forested habitat but did not discriminate between forest types. The presence of conspecifics appeared influential for settlement and site fidelity of translocated martens and was associated with more rapid but more distant dispersal of the later cohort. Releases of animals in close proximity appeared to promote site fidelity and rapid establishment of ranges in the recipient environment.

Home-range size and fidelity of two sympatric Martes species

Determining variation in home-range behavior and the factors shaping this variation is crucial to better understand the biology of species and thus improve their management and conservation. We investigated age and sex variations in the home-range and core-area sizes, as well as fidelity to home range, of the stone marten (Martes foina (Erxleben, 1777)) and the European pine marten (Martes martes (Linnaeus, 1758)) in a rural area (Bresse, France) over several seasons. As expected, pine martens had larger home ranges and core areas than stone martens. Sex differences were also evidenced in both species in accordance with the typical mustelid pattern of socio-spatial organization. Beyond these differences, we found that both species responded to seasonal changes by adjusting seasonally the locations rather than their home-range and core-area sizes, especially stone martens. This difference might come from the higher intensity of perturbation in the preferred habitat of stone martens (human buildings), which explains why stone martens showed lower fidelity than pine martens.