Rapid changes in agricultural landscape structure and composition affect many different farmland biotas,
including carnivores, which are a key element of ecosystem stability, yet little is known about their
distribution and habitat use. In this study, we evaluated how habitat characteristics on two different
spatial scales (local and landscape scale) affected the forest-edge utilization by small and medium-sized
carnivores in fragmented central European farmland. Based on an indirect method for detecting carnivores
(scent stations), we sampled 212 forest fragments of different sizes (1–7864 ha) during April to
May from 2006 to 2009. Our results indicate that carnivore utilization of forest-edge habitats was driven
by landscape rather than local characteristics even though the overall extent of explained variation was
small. The most important factors that determined response of the carnivore community were the area
of farmland and that of urban land on a landscape scale. The corridor connectivity between small forest
fragments and other spatial elements played a crucial role in the occurrence of red fox. Our results suggest
that comprehensive studies on multi-species carnivore assemblage using scent station might be useful
in evaluating species-specific response to habitat characteristics, especially if large numbers of stations
visited by carnivores are available.