Diet composition and habitat use of sympatric polecat and American mink in western France

Abstract

Food habitats of Mustela putorius and of Mustela vison are compared by analysis of scats collected from two radiotracked animals in a marsh habitat. Both predators take a wide range of prey but polecat consumes more rodents and feeds upon amphibians in spring, whereas mink mainly preys on fish and birds. Dietary overlap results from the common utilization of rodent prey. Both predators reduce competition by intensive exploitation of different resources and by segregation in the space use. -from Author