WINTER DIET IN SABLE (MARTES ZIBELLINA) AND PINE MARTEN (MARTES MARTES, CARNIVORA, MUSTELIDAE) FROM THE URALS

The main component of the sable diet was small rodents (70.9%), cedar nuts (34.0), birds (17.2), berries (12.9), and insectivores (6.4); for pine marten, it is small rodents (43.1), birds (26.7), other rodents (16.4), insectivores (14.5,) and cedar nuts (14.2%). Sable consumes small rodents, cedar nuts and berries more often by 1.7, 2.4, 1.4 times than pine marten does (p < 0.0002). Marten much more (p < 0.00001) uses large rodents (mostly squirrel), insects, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. The total percentage of animals in the marten's diet was 86.5, that in the diet of sable, 69.9 (p < 0.00001), i.e. pine marten compared to sable is carnivorous to a greater extent. This index was different in sables related to their habitat: the proportion of animal food in the sables inhabiting the left bank of the Ob River was minimal (49.8-50.7%), but it was significantly higher in the Uralian sables (67.1-82.7%) (p < 0.003). The studied species are different in foraging ecology: marten is a miophage, but sable is a mixophage. These features of two species allow them to use the common food in the joint stations differently, avoiding the direct competition for food resources.