Fine-scale selection by marten during winter in a young deciduous forest

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Forest Research
• Main Authors: Porter, Aswea Dawn, St Clair, Colleen Cassady, Vries, Andrew de
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2005
• Subjects: Ecology; Forestry; Global and Planetary Change; American marten; Martes americana
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/x05-014; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/x05-014

American marten (Martes americana (Turton, 1806)) are often associated with old-growth forests, but have been detected living in a young deciduous forest in northern British Columbia, where a previous coarse-scale analysis failed to detect significant habitat selection. To address this paradox, we examined fine-scale habitat selection for specific activities. We used radiotelemetry and snowtracking to identify sites that appeared to have been used for resting, foraging, scent marking, and traveling during the winters of 1998–1999 and 1999–2000. Then we conducted vegetation surveys at these activity sites and at nearby random locations and used logistic regression to measure selection. Based on the number of significant variables and model fit, we detected more selectivity by marten for resting than for foraging and scent-marking sites, and no selectivity for traveling. Marten exhibited selection for several habitat structures that are characteristic of older forests (e.g., rootballs and wide-diameter snags), but that can be retained in some manipulated forests. With the exception of wide-diameter snags (selected at both resting sites and scent marks), marten selected different habitat structures for each type of activity. These results may help to explain why marten are able to survive in this and other sites that provide seemingly unsuitable habitat.