Potential distribution of the alpine marmot in Southern Pyrenees

Abstract

Alpine marmots were introduced in the French Pyrenees between 1948 and 1988. The exact number of re-introduced individuals is unknown, but it oscillated around 400. The likely preference of marmots for the southern sunny slopes rapidly facilitated their expansion to the southern Pyrenees, where the lack of both natural predators and of important interspecific competitors also likely facilitated an important expansion of this species. There is only one attempt to broadly calculate the population of marmots in the southern Pyrennes, estimating a population of around 10,000 individuals. However, there exist no reliable data to calculate the potential distribution of this new colonizing species in the southern Pyrenees, and a map of the potential distribution of the species is necessary to see whether alpine marmots can potentially establish in sites where it might be necessary to manage its populations for various reasons. We developed a map of potential distribution based on census carried out in summer of 2007 in an area of more than 600 km. We censused more around 300 colonies together with around 300 random points to characterized habitat selection variables. A map with a pixel size of 15 × 15 m has been obtained based on preferred habitats and also on distances to other habitats for the whole southeastern Pyrenees.

Keywords:

• alpine community
• invasive species
• Marmota marmota
• mammal