| Summary: | Large-scale forestry fills boreal landscapes with roads and clearcuts. In Canada alone, 15,000 km of new forestry roads are built annually, adding to habitat fragmentation caused by the logging of 6 100 km2 of forest annually. Furthermore, vegetation near forestry roads often differs from vegetation elsewhere, and may influence animal foraging and other movements. Gaps in the forest cover may therefore affect species distribution patterns, but underlying mechanisms are unknown most of the time. We asked whether and how American marten (Martes americana) respond to forest edges adjoining roads and clearcuts at the Montmorency Research Forest, a 66-km2 area north of Quebec City, Canada. We followed 84.6 km of marten tracks by snowshoe over 3 winters, and recorded their location with high-resolution GPS receivers. The distribution of marten tracks was independent of distance to road or clearcut edges. However, martens tended to move along edges, apparently because of the higher occurrence of prey (squirrels Tamiasciurus hudsonicus and hares Lepus americanus) near clearcut and road edges. High prey abundance near edges was itself associated to vegetation differences close to edges. I conclude that edge effects on vegetation affected prey distribution, which in turn affected marten movements. L’exploitation forestière implique la mise en place d’un dense réseau de routes. Au Canada, 15 000 km de nouvelles routes forestières sont construites annuellement, s’ajoutant ainsi à la fragmentation causée par l’exploitation de 6 100 km2 de forêt par an. De plus, la structure de la végétation proche des routes forestières est souvent différente de celle rencontrée ailleurs, ce qui pourrait influencer les comportements d’approvisionnement de la faune et ses déplacements. Les ouvertures du couvert forestier pourraient par conséquent affecter les patrons de déplacement de la faune, mais cette conséquence est peu documentée. Nous avons évalué le comportement de déplacement de la Martre d'Amérique (Martes americana) en réponse ...
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