Hidden dispersal in an urban world: genetic analysis reveals occasional long-distance dispersal and limited spatial substructure among Dutch pine martens

Especially in urbanized landscapes, habitat fragmentation and increasing numbers of infrastructural features may limit genetic exchange among wildlife populations. Yet, whether this results in genetic differentiation among individuals in different habitat fragments will depend on both the species studied and the composition of the landscape. European pine martens (Martes martes) show clear spatial structure at a Europe-wide scale, but whether gene flow among habitat patches can be maintained at a more local scale in intensively urbanized areas remained unclear. Here, we analysed genotypic data... Mehr ...