Activity and Movement Patterns of Urban Stone Martens

In Europe, the stone marten, Martes foina , is one of the main carnivore species to inhabit urban areas. While these environments are generally resource rich, they also present a range of anthropogenic stresses, such as human persecution or road traffic, which have the potential to induce behavioural responses in urban wildlife. We radio‐tracked 12 stone martens in two towns in Luxembourg in order to determine how their activity (duration of the principal activity period, nightly activity duration) and movement (nightly movement distance, movement speed, nightly range) patterns were adapted to this environment. Stone martens displayed a more strictly nocturnal lifestyle than was known from studies on this species in more rural environments. We argue this to be a behavioural adaptation to reduce the rate of potential contact with humans. In fact, during long winter nights, emergence from dens took place long after sunset and return to dens intervened mostly before traffic picked up in the mornings. Furthermore, during long nights, marten peak activity was shifted to those parts of the night when human activity was at its lowest. On the other hand, stone martens were active during the entire dark period during short summer nights. Despite presumably higher resource availability and somewhat smaller territories compared to other studies, stone marten activity duration and movement distances were similar to those recorded in forest or rural populations elsewhere. Interestingly spring mobility was more pronounced in females than would be expected. We discuss these results in the context of territorial behaviour which, in urban areas, is likely to be driven by factors such as increased perceived intruder pressure.