Mortality risk increases with natal dispersal distance in American martens

The assumption that mortality risk increases with dispersal distance has rarely been tested. We compared patterns of natal dispersal in the American marten (Martes americana) between a large regenerating forest landscape and an uncut landscape that was dominated by more mature forest to test whether mortality risk increased with dispersal distance, and whether variation in mortality risk influenced dispersal distance. Mortality risk increased with dispersal distance in both landscape treatments, but the distance-dependent increase in mortality in the regenerating landscape was twice that in the uncut landscape. Differences in body condition, supported by other data on foraging efficiency, suggested that juveniles from the regenerating landscape were less able to cope with the energetic demands of dispersal compared with juveniles from older forests. Juveniles travelled shorter distances in the regenerating versus uncut landscape. These results implied that dispersal was costly in terms of juvenile survival and that mean dispersal distance was shaped, in part, by mortality risk.