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Intraguild dietary overlap and its possible relationship to the coexistence of mesocarnivores in intensive agricultural habitats

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Population Ecology

An Erratum to this article was published on 30 August 2012

Abstract

The stone marten (Martes foina) and the pine marten (M. martes) are closely related mammalian carnivores potentially subject to exploitative competition. The recent expansion of the pine marten into the intensively cultivated plain of the River Po (NW Italy), where previously only stone marten occurred, offered an interesting opportunity to analyse their relationships. We studied the distribution and diet of Martes species and trophic niche overlap between martens and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in two study areas, each with two pseudoreplicates, by analysing genotyped faeces. Our results seem to confirm the displacement of the stone marten from one study area, the pine marten being the only Martes species occurring where previously the stone marten had been reported. We found a large food niche overlap between red fox and both stone and pine martens, but with evidence of size-related differences in the consumption of some food items. We hypothesised that, due to the poor prey-base of the environment, highly altered by intensive crop cultivation, intense interspecific competition originally occurred between the red fox and stone marten. The heightening of interspecific competition caused by the entry of the pine marten in the predator guild may have caused the displacement of the stone marten, at least temporarily. The mechanism of such displacement needs to be clarified through further surveys in areas where the three species occur sympatrically.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been partially supported by the River Po Park (Vercelli and Alessandria provinces) and by the Basque Government through the Research group on “Systematics, Biogeography and Population Dynamics” (Ref. IT317-10; GIC10/76). A. Ruiz-González was supported by a Ph.D. fellowship awarded by the Dept. of Education Universities and Research of the Basque Government (Ref. BFI09.396). We are grateful to Dino Massignani (Natural Reserve “San Massimo”) for his help during field surveys. Lesley C. Wright and Paul Chanin kindly revised the English language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 24, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Luigi Remonti, Alessandro Balestrieri, Enrica Capelli & Claudio Prigioni

  2. Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU; C/Paseo de la Universidad 7, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Aritz Ruiz-González & Benjamín J. Gómez-Moliner

  3. Systematics, Biogeography and Population Dynamics Research Group, CIEA “Lucio Lascaray” Centre for Research and Advanced Studies, UPV/EHU; Avda Miguel de Unamuno, 3, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Aritz Ruiz-González & Benjamín J. Gómez-Moliner

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  1. Luigi Remonti
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Correspondence to Luigi Remonti.

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Remonti, L., Balestrieri, A., Ruiz-González, A. et al. Intraguild dietary overlap and its possible relationship to the coexistence of mesocarnivores in intensive agricultural habitats. Popul Ecol 54, 521–532 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-012-0326-5

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