Abstract
Stone martens (Martes foina) occur in urban environments in many parts of continental Europe, where they cause a nuisance by denning in inhabited houses. We radio tracked 13 stone martens (10 females, 3 males) in two towns in southern Luxembourg during a 2-year period, in order to investigate den preferences and patterns of den use. We predicted that urban martens would make more use of buildings and less use of natural den sites than do their rural counterparts. All martens used multiple den sites but use was concentrated on a subset of these, between which individuals shifted frequently. Denning was almost exclusively in buildings (97.1%), with use of inhabited buildings being the highest (41.9%) recorded to date for this species. Inhabited buildings were used more extensively in winter, presumably because they were warmer and better insulated. We conclude that stone martens can successfully adapt their denning behaviour to an urban environment and that they use anthropogenic den sites more often than do most other mesocarnivore urban adapters.
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Herr, J., Schley, L., Engel, E. et al. Den preferences and denning behaviour in urban stone martens (Martes foina). Mamm Biol 75, 138–145 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2008.12.002
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2008.12.002