Population aspects of sexual dimorphism in Mustelidae from the example of four species (Mustela lutreola, Neovison vison, Mustela putorius, and Martes martes)

Abstract

Size sexual dimorphism was studied on 695 crania of four species of the Mustelidae. According to the degree of increasing differences between sexes, the species were arranged in the following order: common marten (Martes martes), European mink (Mustela lutreola), American mink (Neovison vison), and black polecat (Mustela putorius). The value of dimorphism characterizes the ecological flexibility of species and is an integrated population characteristic. It was demonstrated that M. martes occupies a specific and relatively narrow ecological niche of the forest ecosystem and joins weak competitive relations with smaller species of Mustelidae. The level of sexual dimorphism in M. lutreola and N. vison, as well as M. putorius, reflects the tension of their interspecific relationships in a given territory. A high level of sexual dimorphism in M. putorius is caused by further divergence of the ecological niches of males and females, being a compensatory mechanism, which mitigates the consequences of toughened environmental requirements.