Explaining the successful introduction of the alpine marmot in the Pyrenees

摘要

Alpine marmots were introduced into thenorthern Pyrenees between 1948 and 1988 fromindividuals captured in the French Alps, in order tobolster food sources for the golden eagle and brownbear. The marmot's subsequent occupation of thesouthern Pyrenees has been extremely fast. From aninitial population of 400 individuals, the presentpopulation in the southern Pyrenees is estimated to beof more than 10,000 individuals. The objective of thisstudy was to assess what were the mechanisms thathave enabled such a fast occupation of the territory.We studied habitat preferences and habitat selectionof the alpine marmot in the southern Pyrenees both atthe micro- and meso-scale, and compared our resultswith similar data in the bibliography on their nativeregion. We also compared climatic data from both thenative and introduction sites. Our results indicaterelatively low climate (precipitation and temperature)matching between the two sites but a relatively high habitat matching. Marmots negatively select highwoody cover and the presence of conifers in their homerange, while they choose alpine and sub-alpinemeadows close to rivers with boulders. Furthermore,the marmot population is independent of snow coverduration. We conclude that the successful establish-ment in the Pyrenees by the alpine marmot is explainedboth by the habitat- and climate-matching mecha-nisms. In both aspects, marmots show a generalistresponse. Meso-scale GIS-derived variables were nonsignificant when analyzed together with local, micro- scale variables from field measurements.