American martens use vigilance and short-term avoidance to navigate a landscape of fear from fishers at artificial scavenging sites

Abstract

Where two sympatric species compete for the same resource and one species is dominant, there is potential for the subordinate species to be affected through interference competition or energetic costs of avoiding predation. Fishers (Pekania pennanti) and American martens (Martes americana) often have high niche overlap, but fishers are considered dominant and potentially limiting to martens. We observed presence and vigilance of fishers and martens at winter carcass sites using remote cameras in Michigan, USA, to test the hypothesis that interference competition from fishers creates a landscape of fear for martens. Within winters, fishers co-occupied 78–88% of sites occupied by martens, and martens co-occupied 79–88% of sites occupied by fishers. Fishers displaced martens from carcasses during 21 of 6117 marten visits, while martens displaced fishers during 0 of 1359 fisher visits. Martens did not alter diel activity in response to fisher use of sites. Martens allocated 37% of time to vigilance compared to 23% for fishers, and martens increased vigilance up to 8% at sites previously visited by fishers. Fishers increased vigilance by up to 8% at sites previously visited by martens. Our results indicate that fishers were dominant over martens, and martens had greater baseline perception of risk than fishers. However, fishers appeared to be also affected as the dominant competitor by putting effort into scanning for martens. Both species appeared widespread and common in our study area, but there was no evidence that fishers spatially or temporally excluded martens from scavenging at carcasses other than occasional short-term displacement when a fisher was present. Instead, martens appeared to mitigate risk from fishers by using vigilance and short-term avoidance. Multiple short-term anti-predator behaviors within a landscape of fear may facilitate coexistence among carnivore species.

Post-fire movements of Pacific marten (Martes caurina) depend on the severity of landscape change

“…Although marten choose habitats based on prey abundance and accessibility [ 57 , 107 ], other factors may influence the placement and structure of marten home ranges. Marten may avoid areas of sparse overhead cover due to greater perceived predation risk [ 56 , 108 ]. Notably, fishers sometimes prey on marten [ 109 , 110 ] and select similar habitats; thus, competition with fishers in the highly fragmented BC study area may have influenced the distribution of resident marten [ 111 , 112 ].…”

Is time partitioning the currency of coexistence for a grassland canid community?

“…proactive), but the risk varies across multiple spatial and temporal scales (Lima and Dill 1990), and individuals respond dynamically to risk at appropriate scales (Messinger et al 2019), thus partitioning can occur at fine scales as well (i.e. reactive; Dröge et al 2017, Creel 2018, Ferreiro‐Arias 2021, Kautz et al 2021). That swift foxes do not demonstrate proactive spatial or temporal partitioning may suggest that swift foxes are responding reactively at much smaller spatial and temporal scales to the presence of competitors (Broekhuis et al 2013, Creel et al 2018), resulting in a broad temporal niche breadth, similar to changes in diet breadth (Hayward and Kerley 2008, Monterroso et al 2020).…”

Conservation of rare and cryptic species: Challenges of uncertainty and opportunities for progress

“…Humboldt martens ( Martes caurina humboldtensis ; synonymous with “coastal” martens), a subgroup of Pacific martens ( M. caurina ; Schwartz et al, 2020), exemplify the challenges of rare and cryptic species conservation. Martens are small‐bodied, solitary carnivores that exhibit high vagility (Moriarty et al, 2017), defense of relatively large territories (Buskirk & MacDonald, 1989), and avoidance of interspecific predators or competitors (Kautz et al, 2021). Although Pacific martens have a relatively widespread distribution throughout high‐elevation, montane forests of western North America (Dawson et al, 2017), Humboldt martens uncharacteristically inhabit lower‐elevation forests in coastal and near‐coastal areas (Zielinski et al, 2001).…”