Time partitioning in mesocarnivore communities from different habitats of NW Italy: insights into martens’ competitive abilities

Abstract

Most studies focused on species coexistence have been directed at the differential use of habitat and food resources; nonetheless, the differential use of the diel cycle may enhance the coexistence of same-sized species. We investigated the activity patterns of mesocarnivores (red fox (Vulpes vulpes), European badger (Meles meles), pine marten (Martes martes), stone marten (M. foina)) in NW Italy via camera-trapping. We hypothesized that the smallest species would tend to avoid competition by selecting time periods when larger species were less active. Foxes, badgers, and stone martens were mainly nocturnal. In lowland areas overlap between coexisting species was generally low, while in Mediterranean habitats all activity patterns tended to be unimodal and overlap was generally high. The pine marten showed a cathemeral pattern. We suggest that the lower ability of the stone marten to avoid interference competition at community-level may play a major role in determining its widespread exclusion from forested areas by the pine marten.

American marten and fisher do not segregate in space and time during winter in a mixed‐forest system

“…We found weak evidence for temporal segregation with strong temporal overlap between martens and fishers. Temporal segregation between martens and fishers has only been reported in one study to date (McCann et al, ) but has been documented in other sympatric mesocarnivores (Harrington et al, ; Monterroso, Alves, & Ferreras, ; Monterroso et al, ; Torretta et al, ). Martens and fishers exhibited largely crepuscular activity patterns consistent with other studies (Arthur & Krohn, ; Drew & Bissonette, ; Powell et al, ; Zielinski, Spencer, & Barrett, ).…”

Far from the madding crowd: Tolerance toward human disturbance shapes distribution and connectivity patterns of closely related Martes spp.

“…What may be the origin of such different behavioral attitudes in these two prototypically similar (Larroque et al, ) species? While the pine marten was described as mainly nocturnal with bouts of daily activity (Clevenger, ) or facultative nocturnal (Monterroso, Alves, & Ferreras, ), recently Torretta et al () and Fonda, Torretta, Balestrieri, and Pavanello () showed through camera‐trapping in Northern Italy that it may be better defined as cathemeral, with up to 60% of diurnal recordings. In Tuscany, available radiotracking data indicate that the pine marten is active throughout the diurnal cycle (Del Fante, ).…”

“…Both species coexist over a large area (Mitchell‐Jones et al, ) and prefer forested habitats; nonetheless, when syntopic, the pine marten generally occupies forested areas, while the stone marten occurs in rural and suburban areas (Vergara, Cushman, Madeira, & Ruiz‐González, ; Virgós, Zalewski, Rosalino, & Mergey, ). Stone marten association with fragmented and urbanized habitats has been explained as the result of competition with the pine marten (Delibes, ), although the mechanisms which should make the latter more competitive are still not clear (but see Torretta et al, ).…”

Spatiotemporal mechanisms of coexistence in an European mammal community in a protected area of southern Italy

“…Additionally, the sharing of limited resources, including ranging areas and food, is expected to trigger competition between species occupying similar niches (de Boer & Prins, 1990). Physiological and behavioural adaptations would promote niche partitioning, thus favouring the coexistence amongst species living in sympatry (Razgour et al, 2011;Torretta et al, 2017;Pudyatmoko, 2019).…”