10. Habitat Ecology of Fishers in Western North America: A New Synthesis

Raley, Catherine M.; Lofroth, Eric C.; Truex, Richard L.; Yaeger, J. Scott; Higley, J. Mark; Aubry, Keith B.; Zielinski, William J.; Raphael, Martin G.; Proulx, Gilbert; Buskirk, Steven W.

doi:10.7591/9780801466076-013

Cited by 14 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, it is important to understand how this forest differs from that of other studies that suggest that extensive moderate to dense canopy cover is an important predictor of fisher habitat and where fisher home ranges consisted of less than 5% forest openings (e.g., [22]). Level of canopy cover has been termed dense (100-60%), moderate (59-40%), open (39-25%), and sparse (<25%) using the California Wildlife Habitat Relationship (CWHR) system by Mayer and Laudenslayer [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we have analyzed an area where significant portions of the forest contain few large trees and where there are numerous openings in significantly greater proportions than previously reported in the literature [22] as being needed for fisher habitat. However, we have also shown that the few large trees that do exist, particularly those in areas where their numbers are higher, tend to be near den locations and within home ranges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to note that Raley et al [22] suggested that understanding habitat selection by fishers at multiple spatial scales, particularly the home range scale, is important. They proposed that a multiple scale approach would improve our understanding of fisher habitat quality as well as guide us in how one might manage lands where fishers reside.…”

Section: The Forest the Fisher And The Three Scales Of Our Modeling mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Characterizing Habitat Elements and Their Distribution over Several Spatial Scales: The Case of the Fisher

Niblett

Church

Sweeney

et al. 2017

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In past studies of the fisher (Pekania pennanti) most researchers have concluded that fisher habitat must consist of mostly mature to late-seral forest with few, if any, openings. Without doubt, certain elements found in mature to late-seral forests are required by females to successfully rear their young, but some recent work casts doubt on the extent that a continuous canopy of tree coverage and a preponderance of older stands are necessary as long as certain components exist. This paper explores this issue with an attempt to better characterize essential elements of habitat for the female fisher. This characterization is based upon fine-scale inventory plot data that is analyzed across several spatial scales that represent a small neighborhood about den sites, the forest of the 75% kernel density estimate for female home ranges, and the forested region as a whole. We present results of a test of significance in comparing habitat elements across these three scales. Our findings suggest that certain habitat elements typically found in mature to late seral forests must be present at a certain fraction of the landscape for the fisher. The approach described here may be of considerable value in developing guidelines for conservation agreements.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Forest the Fisher And The Three Scales Of Our Modeling mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Characterizing Habitat Elements and Their Distribution over Several Spatial Scales: The Case of the Fisher

Niblett

Church

Sweeney

et al. 2017

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the verifiable fisher map, non- and low-quality habitats occur primarily in areas that fishers did not occupy historically, such as high-elevation (> 1,524 m) montane regions, interior valleys and oak savannas, and areas of human settlement (Figs 1B and 4A) [21, 37]. In other portions of the analysis area in Washington and Oregon, including many lower elevation forests that supported fishers historically but no longer do [21], the model contains few large, contiguous areas of high-quality fisher habitat; rather, low- and medium-quality fisher habitats are common, widespread, and interspersed with relatively small patches of high-quality fisher habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In western North America, fishers are associated with low- to mid-elevation forests (generally < 1,250 m) where deep, soft snow does not accumulate, with relatively dense canopies and high structural diversity, including abundant large live trees, snags, and logs [16, 21, 37–38]. Using gradient nearest neighbor (GNN) raster data derived from 2012 Landsat imagery and inventory plots [39], we selected 5 vegetative covariates that represented varying forest types, stand ages, and structural conditions: VEGCLASS (vegetation class), AGE (stand age), CANCOV (canopy cover), DDI (diameter diversity index), and QMD (quadratic mean diameter).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of data quality for generating reliable distribution models for rare, elusive, and cryptic species

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The availability of spatially referenced environmental data and species occurrence records in online databases enable practitioners to easily generate species distribution models (SDMs) for a broad array of taxa. Such databases often include occurrence records of unknown reliability, yet little information is available on the influence of data quality on SDMs generated for rare, elusive, and cryptic species that are prone to misidentification in the field. We investigated this question for the fisher (Pekania pennanti), a forest carnivore of conservation concern in the Pacific States that is often confused with the more common Pacific marten (Martes caurina). Fisher occurrence records supported by physical evidence (verifiable records) were available from a limited area, whereas occurrence records of unknown quality (unscreened records) were available from throughout the fisher’s historical range. We reserved 20% of the verifiable records to use as a test sample for both models and generated SDMs with each dataset using Maxent. The verifiable model performed substantially better than the unscreened model based on multiple metrics including AUCtest values (0.78 and 0.62, respectively), evaluation of training and test gains, and statistical tests of how well each model predicted test localities. In addition, the verifiable model was consistent with our knowledge of the fisher’s habitat relations and potential distribution, whereas the unscreened model indicated a much broader area of high-quality habitat (indices > 0.5) that included large expanses of high-elevation habitat that fishers do not occupy. Because Pacific martens remain relatively common in upper elevation habitats in the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, the SDM based on unscreened records likely reflects primarily a conflation of marten and fisher habitat. Consequently, accurate identifications are far more important than the spatial extent of occurrence records for generating reliable SDMs for the fisher in this region. We strongly recommend that practitioners avoid using anecdotal occurrence records to build SDMs but, if such data are used, the validity of resulting models should be tested with verifiable occurrence records.

show abstract

Mesocarnivore sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic disturbance leads to declines in occurrence and concern for species persistence

Ganoe,

Mayer,

Brown

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding mesocarnivore responses to both natural and anthropogenic disturbance is crucial for understanding species' potential to maintain landscape persistence into the future. We examined the response of five mesocarnivore species (bobcat, coyote, fisher, gray fox, and red fox) to both types of disturbances and climatic conditions. The Northeastern U.S. has experienced multiple large‐scale disturbances, such as a mass defoliation event following larval spongy moth outbreak and high densities of infrastructure that divide the natural landcover into roadless zones where these species inhabit. Using dynamic occupancy models in a Bayesian framework, we aimed to (1) examine variation in species' responses over a 4‐year study by estimating variation in site‐level occupancy, colonization and extirpation of each species in the state of Rhode Island relative to natural disturbance (i.e., defoliation event), anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., parceling of natural landcover bounded by roads, distance to roads), and climate (i.e., seasonal precipitation) and (2) compare current occurrence trends to predicted asymptotic occupancy to identify key variables contributing to distribution instability. Our findings indicated declines in the occurrence of both fox species, and fisher. There was variation in mesocarnivore response to disturbance among the species. We found gray fox and fisher occupancy dynamics to be sensitive to all forms of disturbance and coyote occurrence was positively associated with anthropogenic disturbance. Although bobcat and red fox were predicted to respond positively to future climate scenarios, fisher and gray fox were not, and persistence of fisher and gray fox in a landscape of disturbance relies on large areas with high forest and shrubland cover. With the wide‐spread spongy moth outbreak across much of southern New England, our findings indicate that efforts to conserve forested lands may be crucial in maintaining the persistence of several mesocarnivore species in this region experiencing large‐scale disturbance.

show abstract

10. Habitat Ecology of Fishers in Western North America: A New Synthesis

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Characterizing Habitat Elements and Their Distribution over Several Spatial Scales: The Case of the Fisher

Characterizing Habitat Elements and Their Distribution over Several Spatial Scales: The Case of the Fisher

The importance of data quality for generating reliable distribution models for rare, elusive, and cryptic species

Mesocarnivore sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic disturbance leads to declines in occurrence and concern for species persistence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About