Harvesting may disrupt spacing patterns that affect individual breeding status in solitary forest carnivores such as the marten (Martes americana). Further, male-biased harvests may decrease relative density of competitors for mates, enabling males to expand their territories to maximize access to females. We assessed whether territoriality was exhibited in an intensively trapped population of marten, evaluated whether males abandoned home ranges during the breeding season, and tested whether home-range size of males was related to energetic requirements or access to mates. We also assessed whether movements and range areas of adult females with offspring were different from nonreproductive adult (greater-than-or-equal-to 1 yr) females. We radiotracked 28 resident adult marten (14 M, 14 F) from May 1989 to April 1991. Overlap of ranges within sexes was less than (P = 0.01) expected if ranges were distributed independently among consexuals. Conversely, overlap between sexes was not different (P = 0.12) from expected if ranges were distributed independently of the opposite sex. The percentage of range shared with marten of the same sex (5.9% M, 10.7% F) was less (P < 0.001 M, P = 0.01 F) than the proportion shared with the opposite sex (37.1% M, 71.4% F). Shared areas were not used less (P > 0.17) than unshared areas, and distance between sexes increased (P = 0.01) from May to October. Contrary to some other mustelids, male marten did not foray from their territories during the breeding season; distance traveled and location of ranges did not change (P > 0.11) during breeding (Jul-Aug). Range size (95% min. convex polygon) during May-October was larger (P = 0.002) for males (5.2 km2) than for females (2.8 km2) but not more than expected (P = 0.26) according to differences in body mass. Lactating female marten had smaller (P = 0.06) ranges than did nonreproductive females. Despite low densities, territories of 11 of 14 males overlapped with greater-than-or-equal-to 1 adult female. Breakdown of territories and transient behavior may not occur in trapped populations of marten unless mates become so widely distributed that intersexual overlap becomes unpredictable.
