Carnivore Contact: A Species Fracture Zone Delineated Amongst Genetically Structured North American Marten Populations (Martes americana and Martes caurina).

ABSTRACT: North American martens are forest dependent, influenced by human activity, and climate vulnerable. They have long been managed and harvested throughout their range as the American marten (Martes americana). Recent work has expanded evidence for the original description of two species in North America - M. americana and the Pacific Coast marten, M. caurina - but the geographic boundary between these groups has not been described in detail. From 2010 to 2016 we deployed 734 multi-taxa winter bait stations across a 53,474 km² study area spanning seven mountain ranges within the anticipated contact zone along the border of Canada and the United States. We collected marten hair samples and developed genotypes for 15 polymorphic microsatellite loci for 235 individ

SUBMITTER: Lucid M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7370953 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature