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Why are they so vulnerable to climate change and ecological breakdown?
🌎 Narrow habitat preferences
❄️ Cold-adapted ranges (especially in the fast-warming Arctic)
🌲 Fragmented forests
🔄 Low adaptive capacity
From wildfires to deforestation to the collapse of prey populations, this research maps out how 11 Guloninae species are vulnerable to climate and ecological breakdown.
TLDR: 10 of 11 species are at medium or high risk.
The pine marten, fisher, wolverine, & similar species are facing more than habitat loss — they also occupy environments threatened by climate change.
New peer-reviewed research in @stacksjournal assesses the future of the Guloninae across the globe. The outlook is rough.
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This new technique could be really helpful for other non-invasive monitoring because it is:
💰 Cost-effective: Only one temperature logger needed
🦊 Efficient: Detects when animals are inside, not just nearby
📈 Scalable: Automatable—ideal for long-term monitoring
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ALT Histogram showing the number of uses detected by fishers and martens for each month of the year. Fishers uses are shown in black bars while marten uses are shown in gray bars.
Then they matched how temperature changes inside the den boxes were correlated with animals entering, staying, & leaving the boxes.
And they found...
Every fisher & marten visit triggered a consistent spike. Even better—they were distinct enough to tell the species apart!
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ALT Graphs of temperature, first derivative of temperature by time, and second derivative of temperature by time for a den box use by an American marten.
💡 What if monitoring wildlife was automatic and could even differentiate among species?
New research in @StacksJournal shows a novel idea: using the rate of temperature change in den boxes to track martens, fishers, and even sometimes squirrels.
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#WildlifeConservation
ALT A fisher standing outside of a fisher den box in a red pine forest during the day in winter.
Researchers used 11 microsatellite DNA markers to analyze 246 individuals from Siberia.
The surprise? In 6 out of 11 sable populations, some animals were actually pine marten hybrids.
And – morphology alone couldn’t tell them apart.
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Sables and pine martens look distinct — with different tail lengths, throat patches, and fur.
But in areas where their ranges overlap, hybrids (called "kidus") may resemble either one.
Do you think you can always tell a sable from a pine marten just by looking at it? 👀
In the Ural forests, it may be harder than you think.
New research reveals how genetic tools can uncover surprising levels of hybridization in the wild.
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