2026-10-11T14:46:57Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33951319 2026-09-21T15:31:57Z category_30563 portal_1059 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Viability of American marten population used as a source for translocations Carly Wikston (25081747) John Erb (25081750) Jonathan Gilbert (25081753) Jonathan Pauli (22078622) Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences translocation Conservation population recovery American marten Martes americana reintroduction population viability population demography carnivore ecology Biological sciences <p>Translocations are increasingly used for species recovery but are often performed without considering how such actions will impact both recipient and source populations. Imperiled species often occur in networks of sub-populations each contributing to connectivity, viability and persistence, and balancing the benefit of translocations to recipient populations against the risk to source populations will support broad conservation goals. Serial translocations of American martens (<em>Martes americana</em>) have resulted in a recovery network in the Great Lakes region, though an important sub-population in the Chequamegon National Forest (Wisconsin, USA) remains imperiled. These martens were sourced from a sub-population in the south of the Superior National Forest (Minnesota, USA); however, it remains unclear if this source can sustain additional removals. To assess viability of both populations under future translocation actions, we quantified vital rates and populated demographic matrix models to project both populations forward 50 years under 16 potential translocation programs. We assessed extinction risk and recovery potential and found that the source population of martens is resistant to declines under temporally dispersed schedules involving < 100 adult females. The recipient population, however, requires 50-100 adult females to reduce extinction risk, and even more to approach recovery. These findings call into question the population recovery goals, and suggest that a single source may be sufficient to reduce recipient extinction risk, but that multiple source populations are needed to promote recovery. Our work highlights the importance of considering both source and recipient populations, and provides an analytical decision-making framework to guide sustainable translocation programming.</p> 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z Dataset Dataset 10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfz6s https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Viability_of_American_marten_population_used_as_a_source_for_translocations/33951319 CC0