I studied the common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) at the northern limit of its range at Norway Bay, Quebec, from April to October 2006. Common musk turtles are habitat specialists and are selective of their habitats at the study-area and home-range scales. Beaver ( Castor canadensis) lodges were preferred at the study-area scale. Common musk turtles also preferred beaver lodges, emergent wetlands, aquatic beds with floating and submerged vegetation as well as rocky shores at the home-range scale. At the location scale, common musk turtles chose shallower and cooler sites that contained more logs and submerged vegetation than the sites available at random. There was no significant effect of sex on habitat use at the location scale. There was no significant difference in mean daily movements between the sexes during the active season. However, sex and month probably interact together to influence the mean distance traveled daily by common musk turtles in Norway Bay. Males appeared to move more than females in May, July, and October. Females appeared to move more daily than males in August and September. Neither sex appeared to move more daily in June. However, our small sample size did not allow us to conduct a conclusive analysis. The mean home-range area was 23.9 ha and was not different between sexes. I estimated a density of 4.1 turtles/ha and a sex ratio of 1.7M: 1F. The population includes 59.6% males, 35.8% females, and 4.6% juveniles. Adults ranged from 77 mm to 133 mm in carapace length.

Hierarchical habitat selection was studied in the North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) in Parc National du Bic, Quebec, Canada. To establish the study population, 150 porcupines were captured and immobilized using a mixture of ketamine and xylazine. Different drug doses and injection techniques were tested. Best results were obtained by injecting in the tail muscles, which allowed a 50% reduction in dose relative to reported dosage. Hierarchical analysis of habitat selection revealed that although porcupines are generalists at the landscape scale, they display habitat selection at the home range and individual tree scales. Human-used land and conifer forests were least preferred features of home ranges. Trembling aspen was found to be preferred over other deciduous trees, except for fruit-producing trees, which came out as being even more preferred at the tree scale. This study shows the importance of a multi-scale approach that includes fine-scale selection.

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