:The winter ecology of individual yellow-throated martens(Martes flavigula) intemperate region of Korea were studied through snow-tracking. The study was performed across 3 winter seasons, from January 2011 to February 2013. Total distance of 49.8km was snow tracked (comprising 13 snow-tracking routes) to determine winter foraging habits, general behavior and movement paths of solitary and small groups (1-6 individuals; mean = 2.9 ± 1.6) of yellow-throated martens. The martens in the current study were omnivorous, with their winter diet including 9 animal and 5 plant species. Yellow-throated martens searched for food near and under the fallen logs and branches, root plates of fallen trees, around the roots of growing trees, and in small holes in the ground. They also climbed trees to search inside the tree holes and vacant bird nests. Foraging activity was Research Paper
The hair microstructures of Korean terrestrial mammals from 23 species (22 wild
and one domestic) were analyzed using light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to
construct a hair identification key. The hairs were examined using the medulla structures
and cuticular scales of guard hairs from the dorsal regions of mature adult animals. All
cuticular scale structures in the hair of Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Carnivora and Insectivora
showed the petal pattern, and those of Artiodactyla and Chiroptera showed the wave pattern
and coronal pattern, respectively. Rodentia, Lagomorpha and Carnivora showed
multicellular, and Insectivora and Artiodactyla showed unicellular regular, mesh or
columnar in the medulla structures, respectively. Chiroptera did not show the medulla
structures in their hair. We found that it is possible to distinguish between species and
order based on general appearance, medulla structures and cuticular scales. Thus, we
constructed a hair identification key with morphological characteristics from each
species. This study suggests that hair identification keys could be useful in fields, such
as forensic science, food safety and foraging ecology.
The composition of the Martes flavigula diet has been extensively studied, but little is known about its insect component. This study characterized the insect diet and insect nest materials in the feces of M. flavigula. A total of 952 fecal samples were collected in Jirisan National Park from January 2009 to November 2011, and 1379 species or taxonomic groups were identified. M. flavigula fed on insects (8.7%) and bee wax (5.0%), which comprised 2.9% and 4.4% of the dry weight of M. flavigula feces, respectively. A total of 12 insect species belonging to 8 families in 3 orders were identified. The most frequently found insects were Hymenoptera (frequency of occurrence, FO, 89.1), including Vespa simillima simillima (FO, 37.3) and Vespula koreensis koreensis (FO, 20.0). The Vespidae constituted the majority of the insect diet in autumn when the diversity of marten's prey was strongly reduced, probably because the numbers of social insects were sufficient for M. flavigula. In addition, the data suggest that M. flavigula attacks the nests of social wasps in late autumn when males do not have a venomous sting and new queens are less aggressive than workers. Bee wax appeared in all seasons and the highest rate was from spring to early summer. However, the remains of honeybees were not found in feces; thus, M. flavigula presumably eats honey but not honeybees.
Roads are notable and responsible for the loss of biodiversity and disruption of wildlife habitats connectivity. Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) help wildlife move between habitats by connecting fragmented habitats. Their effectiveness is affected by various factors. Here, to identify methods for improving the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures, we controlled the effect of intrinsic factors, such as size, that are difficult to improve in an already installed area, and then, evaluated the differences in extrinsic factors using 12 landscape characteristics. Our results show that 18 wildlife crossing structures were selected with propensity-score (PS) matching method. The surrounding landscape characteristics differed between high-effectiveness wildlife crossing structures and low-effectiveness wildlife crossing structures. Particularly, there was a significant difference between the ‘statutory protected area’ and the ‘edge’ index of the morphological spatial pattern analysis among the landscape characteristic variables derived within 1 km2 of wildlife crossing structures. We empirically demonstrate that characteristics around highly effective WCS, statutory protected areas are widely distributed, and the ratio of edge of MSPA is low (within 1 km2). Therefore, an important outcome of our research is the demonstration that management of WCS itself is important, but conservation of surrounding habitats and landscape management plans are also significant.
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