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.