Home range, territorial behaviour and habitat use of stoats (<i>Mustela erminea</i>) in a colony of Hutton's shearwater (<i>Puffinus huttoni</i>), New Zealand

Cuthbert, Richard; Sommer, Erica

doi:10.1080/03014223.2002.9518298

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…When large mast crops are available to martens, animals encountering traps may be satiated thereby reducing the attractiveness of a baited trap. Inverse relationships between food availability and trapping vulnerability have been previously documented in other mustelids (Alterio et al 1999, Cuthbert and Sommer 2002, King and White 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Thompson and Colgan (1987) documented large increases in home range size during a period of prey declines; males and females increased the size of their home ranges 2.0–2.2× and 4.1–4.3×, respectively, compared with years when prey was abundant. Similarly, Murphy and Dowding (1995) and Cuthbert and Sommer (2002) found that short‐tailed weasels (stoats) maintained small home ranges at high prey densities. In contrast to these studies, Payer et al (2004) investigated marten home range fidelity ( n = 131 animals) and found that mean seasonal fidelity was 67.4% for winter locations occurring in home ranges from the previous summer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Marten and fisher responses to fluctuations in prey populations and mast crops in the northern hardwood forest

et al. 2012

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Many forest tree species produce seed (mast) crops that are consumed by a variety of wildlife species and these pulsed resources may mediate interactions among predator and prey populations. In the northern hardwood forests of New York, we investigated interactions among mast production, prey abundance, and harvests of American martens (Martes americana) and fishers (Martes pennanti) during 1988–2009. Mast production for beech (Fagus grandifolia), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), and mountain ash (Sorbus americana) was synchronous and an alternate‐year pattern in production was evident for most of the time series. We documented considerable temporal variation in summer small mammal relative abundance and our numerical response models received substantial support for 5 of the 8 species, indicating lagged responses to autumn mast crops. Trap response of martens to the autumn production of beech mast and mountain ash berries was immediate and numerical responses to the relative abundance of small mammal prey occurred during the preceding summer. The age structure of the marten harvest differed based on the dominant alternate‐year pattern of summer prey relative abundance and autumn mast production (χ24 = 33.06, P < 0.001). The proportion of juvenile marten in the autumn harvest was 52% and 34% following summers when small mammal relative abundance was high and low, respectively and these differences resulted in a persistent cohort effect that was apparent until age 3.5. Trap response of fishers to the autumn production of beech mast was immediate and numerical responses to the relative abundance of Sciurid prey occurred during the preceding summer. Marten and fisher harvests fluctuated similarly among New York, Maine, and New Brunswick, which may indicate regional synchronization of mast crops and responses of martens and fishers to similar prey dynamics. A better understanding of how food availability influences demographic responses and trapping vulnerability of martens and fishers would aid our ability to manage harvests of these species on a sustained yield basis. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Marten and fisher responses to fluctuations in prey populations and mast crops in the northern hardwood forest

et al. 2012

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“…Stoats Mustela erminea , like many other mustelids, are sexually size dimorphic. In the temperate zone, the mean body weight of females is on average 61% that of males (Erlinge, 1977; King, 1989 and references therein; Cuthbert & Sommer, 2002), and in boreal areas (northern Sweden, 63°N) the size difference can be even larger (53%; Erlinge, 1987). The difference is supposedly caused by specialization on different prey to avoid intersex competition (Brown & Lasiewski, 1972) or different reproduction strategy between sexes (Erlinge, 1979; Moors, 1980; Sandell, 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home range, habitat choice and activity of stoats (Mustela erminea) in a subarctic area

Hellstedt

Henttonen²

2006

Journal of Zoology

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We monitored the home ranges, habitat use and activity of stoats Mustela erminea in north-west Finnish Lapland with radio-tracking in years 1998 and 1999, and found a dominance hierarchy in habitat use between and within sexes. Altogether, eight female and seven male stoats were caught and radio-tracked. Males and females differed from each other both in the size of their home ranges and in habitats. Mature females live in areas where the abundance of the preferred Microtus prey is the highest. Dominant males lived in less productive habitats than females, but in more productive areas than non-dominant mature males. Furthermore, both male and female activity levels were higher during the snowless nonbreeding season than the breeding season, but we found no activity differences between sexes through the diurnal cycle. We compare the results from Finnish Lapland with those from other regions, and discuss the flexibility of stoat behaviour in subarctic conditions.

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“…As food resources in Orkney are relatively high and stable it was appropriate to assume that stoats maintain smaller home ranges (Cuthbert and Sommer, 2002;Veale et al, 2015;Anderson et al, 2016). Following this, we modified Model S4 by changing the values of sigma (Model S5).…”

Section: Simulation Model (Model S4)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a Modeling Approach to Inform Progress Towards Stoat Eradication From the Orkney Islands

Zub

García‐Díaz

Sankey

et al. 2022

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Invasive non-native species eradication attempts are typically large and expensive projects that benefit from the support of quantitative tools, such as population models, to be completed within the scheduled and funded time. Managed ecosystems are constantly changing due to population and ecosystem dynamics. Accordingly, any model predictions need to be updated, using different sources of data, to inform the project about the progress toward eradication. The stoat Mustela erminea was introduced to the hitherto predatory land mammal free Orkney archipelago around 2010. In 2016, a project aiming to eradicate stoats to preserve ecologically and economically important native wildlife was designed and implemented. It entailed a “knockdown” phase followed by a “mopping-up” phase to remove stoats that escaped capture. We used data from this project to iteratively predict the progress toward eradication. We applied spatially explicit individual-based models to estimate the proportion of stoats being exposed to capture, and then compared these simulation-based predictions with removal data, allowing us to estimate changes in the population size through time. We also used sighting data from members of the public to refine eradication probability. We were also able to demonstrate how the initially wide uncertainty gradually diminished as more evidence accumulated. The information derived from different types of data and quantitative models allowed us to track the effectiveness of current trapping approaches and to help to inform project managers about when the project achieved the knockdown phase milestone. Our analyses confirmed that the expected magnitude of the initial knockdown phase has been achieved in some areas, but also revealed spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the distribution of captures, most likely caused by the sequential trapping and stoat movement and trap shy stoats exposed to capture but not caught. This heterogeneity calls for additional data sources (e.g., from camera traps or detection dogs) to estimate the proportion of trap-shy individuals and the size of the untrapped population, and ultimately the feasibility of eradication.

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Home range, territorial behaviour and habitat use of stoats (Mustela erminea) in a colony of Hutton's shearwater (Puffinus huttoni), New Zealand

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Marten and fisher responses to fluctuations in prey populations and mast crops in the northern hardwood forest

Marten and fisher responses to fluctuations in prey populations and mast crops in the northern hardwood forest

Home range, habitat choice and activity of stoats (Mustela erminea) in a subarctic area

Using a Modeling Approach to Inform Progress Towards Stoat Eradication From the Orkney Islands

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