This cooperative effort by USDA Forest Service Research and the National Forest System assesses the state of knowledge related to the conservation status of four forest carnivores in the western United States: American marten, fisher, lynx, and wolverine. The conservation assessment reviews the biology and ecology of these species. It also discusses management considerations stemming from what is known and identifies information needed. Overall, we found huge knowledge gaps that make it difficult to evaluate the species' conservation status.
Martens and Fishers (Martes) in Human-Altered Environments: An International Perspective examines the conditions where humans and martens are compatible and incompatible, and promotes land use practices that allow Martes to be representatively distributed and viable. All Martes have been documented to use forested habitats and 6 species (excluding the stone marten) are generally considered to require complex mid- to late-successional forests throughout much of their geographic ranges. All species in the genus require complex horizontal and vertical structure to provide escape cover protection from predators, habitat for their prey, access to food resources, and protection from the elements. Martens and the fisher have high metabolic rates, have large spatial requirements, have high surface area to volume ratios for animals that often inhabit high latitudes, and often require among the largest home range areas per unit body weight of any group of mammals. Resulting from these unique life history characteristics, this genus is particularly sensitive to human influences on their habitats, including habitat loss, stand-scale simplification of forest structure via some forms of logging, and landscape-scale effects of habitat fragmentation. Given their strong associations with structural complexity in forests, martens and the fisher are often considered as useful barometers of forest health and have been used as ecological indicators, flagship, and umbrella species in different parts of the world. Thus, efforts to successfully conserve and manage martens and fishers are associated with the ecological fates of other forest dependent species and can greatly influence ecosystem integrity within forests that are increasingly shared among wildlife and humans. We have made great strides in our fundamental understanding of how animals with these unique life history traits perceive and utilize habitats, respond to habitat change, and how their populations function and perform under different forms of human management and mismanagement. This knowledge enhances our basic understanding of all species of Martes and will help us to achieve the goal of conserving viable populations and representative distributions of the world’s Martes, their habitats, and associated ecological communities in our new millennium.
Mammals in the genus Martes are mid-sized carnivores of great importance to forest ecosystems. This book, the successor to Martens, Sables, and Fishers: Biology and Conservation, provides a scientific basis for management and conservation efforts designed to maintain or enhance the populations and habitats of Martes species throughout the world. The twenty synthesis chapters contained in this book bring together the perspectives and expertise of sixty-three scientists from twelve countries, and are organized by the five key themes of evolution and biogeography, population biology and management, habitat ecology and management, research techniques, and conservation. Recent developments in research technologies such as modeling and genetics, biological knowledge about pathogens and parasites, and concerns about the potential effects of global warming on the distribution and status of Martes populations make new syntheses of these areas especially timely. The volume provides an overview of what is known while clarifying initiatives for future research and conservation priorities, and will be of interest to mammalogists, resource managers, applied ecologists, and conservation biologists.
The first comprehensive treatment of North American rodents of conservation concern. This action plan summarizes the rodent fauna of North America and provides available information on every rodent taxon that has been considered to be of conservation concern by state, provincial and private conservation agencies and regional experts. It is hoped that the survey provided in this action plan will serve as a common ground for all these parties in drawing up conservation strategies for rodents.
Management of mustelid species such as fishers and martens requires an understanding of the history of local populations. This is particularly true in areas where populations were extirpated and restored through reintroduction efforts. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, fishers (Martes pennanti) and American martens (Martes americana) were extirpated from much of their southern range, including Michigan and Wisconsin. Both species have been restored to varying degrees in these states following multiple reintroductions and translocations. We describe the status of the original populations and changes in their status over time, and include source locations, release sites, release and reintroduction dates, and demographic characteristics of released animals. This synthesis is crucial for evaluating the relative success of reintroductions in Michigan and Wisconsin, and, combined with knowledge of the current condition of these populations, can provide valuable guidance on the future management of these species. We also assess the reintroduction of fishers and martens in Michigan and Wisconsin and discuss strategies for successful reintroductions.
The population explosion that began in the 1960s has been accompanied by a decrease in the quality of the natural environment, e.g. pollution of the air, water and soil with essential and toxic trace elements. Numerous poisonings of people and animals with highly toxic anthropogenic Hg and Cd in the 20th century prompted the creation of the abiotic environment, mainly in developed countries. However, the system is insufficient for long-term exposure to low concentrations of various substances that are mainly ingested through food and water. This problem could be addressed by the monitoring of sentinels – organisms that accumulate trace elements and as such reflect the rate and degree of environmental pollution. Usually these are long-lived vertebrates – herbivorous, omnivorous and carnivorous birds and mammals, especially game species. This book describes the responses of the sentinels most commonly used in ecotoxicological studies to 17 trace elements.
