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WildCRU and RECaP revealing pine marten habitat use

A collaborative effort between WildCRU and RECaP Laboratory at Michingan State University, has set out to evaluate the habitat use of European Pine Martens. The pine marten has been traditionally thought of as a strict dweller of woodland. Using an extensive camera-trapping survey in the Scottish Highlands by WildCRU alumnus Kerry Kilshaw, WildCRU and RECaP built occupancy models which found that pine martens, while showing a prevalence to occupy woodland, also commonly occur in other habitat types, including grasslands, agricultural areas, and even areas near human dwellings. The resultant study, entitled ‘Clarifying habitat niche width using broad-scale, hierarchical occupancy models: a case study with a recovering mesocarnivore’, published in the Journal of Zoology, provides a novel and original illustration of pine martens as a more generalist species than previously thought. This has important implications for conservation efforts as now a wider range of landscapes should be considered as the species habitat. The study is a good example of how large-scale study designs and sophisticated statistical models can help to effectively update and refine the labelling and assumptions assigned to less understood species.