Stone marten and pine marten, photo. Wood marten (Martes martes)Eng. European pine marten Marten breeding

Why stone marten so called? Do you think she likes stones very much? Let us now tell you what kind of animal it is and why it is called that.

Marten

One of the most common predators in the family of mammals is the marten. This animal of small stature, with a flexible slender body and fluffy hair is the enemy of many animals, birds and even humans.

Scientists have identified 8 types of martens, the most famous of them are stone marten and forest marten.

What does a stone marten look like

This species is widely distributed in various areas on the Eurasian continent. It gravitates towards areas with a warmer climate. Unlike all other types of martens, it prefers open spaces and is not afraid to be close to human habitation. She can make her holes anywhere: in a barn, in a basement, a stable, a railway depot, in abandoned stork nests.

It is often found in rocky terrain, which is why it got its name.

There are also differences in appearance. The physique is about the same - an elongated body with a pointed muzzle, a long fluffy tail and short paws with five toes. But the sizes of stone martens are slightly different: the body is smaller, up to 55 cm long, and weighs up to 2.5 kg.

It can also be distinguished by the color of the coat. The characteristic spot on the neck is much lighter, almost white color and has a forked shape, like a horseshoe, or it may not exist at all. Because of this spot, it is also called white-haired in a different way. The coat is not as fluffy as that of pine martens, the hair is hard and much shorter.

Listen to the voice of the stone marten

The nose is light, there is no hair on the paws at all. The marten has excellent hearing, sight and smell.

How they breed

Martens become capable of bearing offspring at the age of 15 months. In one of summer months they find a mate. However, all martens have a peculiar feature. They carry the fetus for only a month, but the cub is born only after 8 months. This is due to the fact that the seed, as it were, is preserved in the body of the female until spring.
Only in April, the marten will have 3, sometimes 4 cubs only 10 cm long. They are blind, there is no hair on the body. Eyes open only a month.

Mother's milk is fed up to 2 months. And the cubs begin to find food on their own in the fall.

Martens live, on average, 3 years. Sometimes they live up to 10 years.

What do martens eat

Martens are predators, mainly their diet is the meat of various small animals - rodents, rabbits and birds. Often martens climb into chicken coops. When the chickens begin to rush around in a panic, even a well-fed marten will not stop and will pass all the chickens due to the hunting instinct. They also climb into dovecotes.

These predators, having broken the victim's vertebra, suck out the warm blood from the animal that has not yet been killed with a folded tongue.

Stone martens can catch up and grab a gaping bird, and also climb into nests and eat eggs.

In summer they can catch a variety of insects, frogs. Occasionally eat plant foods, more often fruits or berries.

Interesting facts from the life of martens

People hunt stone martens much less often than martens of another species, since their fur is not of particular value due to the coarseness of the hair. But a constant struggle with them has to be waged in households.

Stone martens, eating chickens or climbing into the rabbitry, cause great damage, killing all animals in a row.

But they cause even more harm, oddly enough, to cars. Martens are attracted to the smell of the engine, and they gnaw through the cables and hoses of a car left unattended overnight. At the same time, they also put their mark on it, showing their relatives that this is the territory marked by it.

What does the common marten that lives in our forests and mountains look like? If someone asks such a question, then you can usually make a description based on the appearance of a familiar object. Everyone has seen a bear, at least in the zoo and in the picture. So reduce the bear ten times, make his body long, slender and light. Do not forget to stretch and lighten the muzzle. Yes, the paws also need to be made small, light, but always clawed. This is where the marten will turn out.

Martens are predatory mammals from the weasel family

Martens are carnivorous mammals from the mustelid family. Their closest relatives, in addition to several types of martens proper, are:

• sable;
• mink;
• ermine;
• caress;
• solong;
• columns;
• ferret;
• dressing;
• charza;
• pecan;
• wolverine;
• badger;
• skunk;
• otter;
• sea ​​otter

Thus, the weasel family includes a very small weasel and a huge wolverine that looks more like a bear. However, all mustelids are agile, fast and strong predators.

The animals of this species are of medium height, in the sense that their parameters are in the middle between a giant wolverine and a dwarf weasel. The marten is a digitigrade, predatory animal with short five-fingered paws. The toes on the paws are located freely and armed with sharp claws, which allows the animal to easily and quickly climb trees. The muzzle of the marten is sharp with short ears, divided into 2 parts. Her body is long, slender, streamlined, well adapted for fast movement through trees and for sharp jumps over long distances.

The tail is relatively long, reaching half the length of the body in size. It differs from the squirrel's tail in the absence of a fan, which increases the streamlining of the body and the speed of movement through trees, as well as in the mountains over stones and rocks.

Only 2 types of martens live on the territory of Russia - forest and stone. The predominant species is the pine marten.

The color of the pine marten ranges from chestnut to dark brown with a yellowish rounded throat patch. In winter, the fur of the animal is long and silky, in summer it becomes shorter and stiffer.

Like many representatives of this family, the body of the pine marten is oblong with relatively short legs and hair on the feet. In length, the growth of the animal is about 50 cm, while the length of the tail does not exceed 28 cm, it weighs an average of about 1.5 kg. Males are usually a third heavier than females.

The marten is a digitigrade, predatory animal with short five-fingered paws.

Forest marten (video)

Food preferences of martens

To say that martens are predators is like saying nothing. Formally, predators include all animals that themselves kill other animals and immediately eat them. However, can a sundew plant be called a predator? Of course, you can, she kills animals herself and eats them herself. But is the sparrow a predator? Yes, it is also a predator terrifying for all sorts of goats.

The marten is a predatory animal without any reservations. She eats everything that runs, swims, flies, jumps, crawls. Its victims are:

• all murine;
• any bird that did not have time to dodge claws and teeth;
• proteins;
• chipmunks;
• other mustelids that are inferior in strength and size;
• all invertebrates.

The marten is a predatory animal without any reservations

The animal can even eat cubs of a fox, a wolf, a badger, a wild boar, if their parents have gone somewhere. However, the main food of martens are rodents and birds.

Firstly, the bodies of these animals are large enough to saturate the marten at least for a while. Secondly, there are enough of them to maintain the optimal number of these medium-sized predators.

Gallery: marten animal (25 photos)

Lifestyle and biotope

Forest martens fully meet their name. Everything in them is adapted to life on trees. Stone martens also got their name because of the way of life and confinement to certain biotopes. They can live perfectly among trees, but they feel just as good in open mountain spaces among rocks and stones.

And yet mustelids are originally forest dwellers. All their evolutionary changes are associated with changes in biotopes, in which the environmental role of trees gradually became less and less significant. The only exception to this rule is the wolverine, which is too big to jump on branches and easily fly from tree to tree.

All martens are able to climb and jump trees well, easily overcoming a distance of up to 4 m in a jump. complex structure tree, they are able to turn their feet 180°. Such plasticity is typical for all dart frogs.

If we talk about the composition of the forest where martens prefer to settle, then these are mostly mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. This confinement is due to the fact that here everyone little animal can find enough food. In such forests, mice, squirrels, chipmunks can feed on:

• nuts of coniferous plants;
• mushrooms;
• grass;
• root crops;
• acorns and fruits deciduous trees;
• invertebrate animals.

A good food base for animals is the so-called upland game, that is large birds that feed on needles, grains and grass. Various partridges, hazel grouses and even capercaillie are quite accessible for food to such a strong and resourceful predator as a marten.

The diet of the stone marten is somewhat different from that of the forest marten. However, the differences are not radical. Among mountain screes, mountain bunnies - pikas can become food. On the steppe areas, ground squirrels can replenish the food supply. For the rest, the basis of nutrition is all the same murines and birds.

Martens live in deciduous forests, especially in oak forests, since acorns and fruits of other deciduous trees attract squirrels, mice and birds.

However, the most acceptable biotope for the marten is the taiga and mixed forests. Here she finds not only food in abundance, but also secluded places for breeding.

Marten hunting for squirrel (video)

Shelters and territories

All martens prefer to settle in hollows. Hollow in the forest, but still quite alive and strong trees always in great short supply. In addition to martens, squirrels, chipmunks, birds (woodpeckers, pikas, nuthatches, tits, etc.) claim such hollows. Once upon a time, Far Eastern animals lived and wintered in them. white-breasted bears. Now when big trees have become an extremely rare occurrence, these bears are sometimes forced to spend the winter simply in a hole under a bush, which is not always compatible with the harsh Far Eastern winters.

Where the trees themselves become scarce, martens already live in minks among stones. Hence the name of the species - stone marten. In addition to the space between stones, this marten can use abandoned or reclaimed nests of large birds.

This beast can divide all shelters into places where you can sleep and sit out the bad weather, and into places where you can create a lair. Sometimes these concepts coincide, but the conditions for the den must be special.

Wood martens are animals with pronounced territorial behavior. In order to keep the site, it must be fenced off. Martens, like all mammals, do this with the help of smells. The marker is odorous substances secreted by the anal gland. The formation of odor boundaries is necessary, first of all, in order to fence off same-sex individuals. The territories of males and females may overlap.

Usually, males have a larger area of ​​their own than females. The size of the plots depends on the ability of the individual not only to apply scent marks along the periphery of the plot, but also to prove its right to this territory. A large individual can win a large area.

There are differences in the size of the plot and the seasons. In winter, the territories of individual individuals can be half as large as in summer. A small winter area is easier to defend in conditions of deep snow and less abundance of food.

Reproduction and fertility

Martens usually mate in the middle of summer, but the first cub does not appear until April next year. This is not due to a long period of pregnancy, but to such a phenomenon as semen conservation. After fertilization, the development of the embryo is delayed until favorable times. For most mammals, these times are spring and early summer. During the summer and autumn months, the cub will be able to grow up enough to safely endure the winter, and the next summer begin to pick up a mate for procreation.

On average, no more than 3 babies are born at a time. Each cub is no more than 10 cm long. For about 2 months, marten children are in the nest. Then they begin to go beyond it and explore the surroundings.

After 4 months home education, that is, by about September, the children of the marten become completely independent. However, this does not prevent them from accompanying their mother until next spring. By the next summer, young martens become fully sexually mature, but they usually breed in the third year of life.

These animals live in captivity for about 16 years. AT wild nature aging of the body does not allow them to safely obtain food and defend themselves from other predators, so their life span is estimated at no more than a dozen years.

Marten and man: facets of interaction

The relationship between humans and animals can be very different. Predators can pose a direct danger to human life or to farm animals. In this regard, martens somewhere in the Moscow region try to stay away from settlements. For human health and life, they do not pose any danger, except for the situation when the person himself forces the poor animal to defend itself and protect its offspring.

Of course, there is a possibility that in the winter starvation, the animal will climb into the chicken coop and take the chicken to its dense forest. However, this happens extremely rarely.

It is believed that the stone marten attacks chicken coops more often than its forest relative. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in the habitats of this species, the number of mice and other small animals and birds is much less than in the mixed forests of Eurasia.

There is another explanation for the arrivals of martens to where a person lives himself, stores his supplies and keeps domestic animals. This is destruction natural conditions the habitat of these animals.

The forests are getting smaller and the houses are getting bigger. In this case, it is the zone that suffers the most mixed forest, where the marten has still found food and shelter in sufficient quantities. Deforestation and development, of course, greatly destroy the natural habitat of martens. However, the pyrogenic factor can be recognized as the most destructive.

Crown fires destroy trees completely, forming grass or grass-shrub thickets instead of forests. In such conditions, pine martens cannot live. The surviving animals, if they have nowhere to migrate, try to feed, breed and spend the winter in the ashes. As a result, they are forced to visit people's homes, which usually also ends badly for them.

If the fires are grassroots (grass, bedding, shrubs, undergrowth) and frequent, trees get pyrotrauma. After a few years of such fire exposure, the tree can burn out and fall. So frequent ground fires lead to the same result as top fires. Only the process is slower. For martens and other arboreal animals, the result is the same - death from starvation, migration to forests that have not yet burned down, raids on rich human bins.

The conclusion is simple - do not destroy the marten biotope and it will bypass your dwellings. This animal loves to live in dense forest thickets, where there is something to feed on and where to hide. Leave him such thickets and he will not be interested in your household.

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Titles: jaundice, European pine marten.

area: Palearctic distribution - geographic range extends from Western Siberia across Russia and Europe to Scotland and Ireland, and from the northern limit of tall coniferous forests (in the north) to the Mediterranean and the Caucasus (in the south).
It is also found on many Mediterranean islands, including Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands (Majorca and Menorca).

Description: the body of the pine marten is long, slender and flexible, covered with long fluffy fur.
The muzzle is small, elongated, triangular in shape, the jaws are strong. The ears are large, triangular, rounded at the top. Each paw has five toes with strong curved semi-retractable claws. The soles are overgrown with fur in winter. The tail is long, reaching half the body.
Males are 12-30% larger than females. The female has two pairs of mammary glands. The teeth are sharp.
The marten's summer fur is dull, consisting of short hair and a sparse undercoat. Moulting in adolescents and adults begins in spring, winter fur begins to grow in August-September.

Color: on the throat and lower neck, a bright teardrop-shaped light yellow spot. Winter fur from light brownish yellow to dark brown. The color of the sides is lighter than the back and belly. The undercoat is light gray with a brownish or yellowish tint. The tip of the tail and paws are dark. The head is the same color as the body. The edges of the ears with a light stroke.

The size: body length 33-56 cm, tail 17-28 cm, height at withers 15 cm.

The weight: 0.5-2.4 kg.

Lifespan: in nature 3-4 (maximum 11 years), in captivity 10-18 years.

Habitat: the marten is closely associated with the forest, prefers dense spruce, fir, oak, deciduous, mixed and tall mature forests, littered with deadwood and with hollow trees. On the open spaces only comes out when hunting. Avoids rocky areas and stone placers.

Enemies: red fox, wolves, goshawk, golden eagle, eagle owl, lynx.
From predators (except birds) escapes on trees. Often large predators destroy pine martens not for food, but to eliminate a potential food competitor.

Food: omnivorous, diet depends on the season and abundance of food - small rodents (field voles, mice, red squirrels, dormice, hares, pikas), birds and their eggs (grouse, black grouse, capercaillie, partridges, nuthatches, woodpeckers, tits) , fish, insects and their larvae (larvae of wild bees and their honey, caterpillars), amphibians (frogs and their eggs), reptiles, hedgehogs and shrews, snails, berries and fruits (blueberries, raspberries, pears, apples, mountain ash, cherries, cherries, rose hips, nuts) and carrion.
In summer, the proportion of berries and fruits can reach up to 30% of the total diet.
The pine marten prepares part of the food for the winter, hiding it in the hollows of trees.
Kills prey with a bite to the back of the head.

Behavior: active nocturnal predator(53-59% of the time the marten is active at night and 14-19% during the day), foraging on the ground and trees. During the day he sleeps in a den, which he arranges in hollows of trees (at a height of 2-5 m), empty squirrel or bird nests, in crevices among stones, windbreaks. During the night (in search of food) it can go 10 km from the lair. In severe frosts, it remains in the nest, feeding on reserves.
It does not have permanent nests, but wanders around an individual site in search of prey. Lives on one site for many years in a row, only occasionally wanders for squirrels.
pine marten curious and playful. Sense of smell, sight and hearing are well developed. It runs in jumps, which leaves paired paw prints (hind paws are placed on the prints of the front ones). It climbs well (on trunks and branches of trees) and jumps (from branch to branch at distances up to 4 m, with high altitude to the snow). Can move through the tops of trees. Can twist feet 180 when climbing. Swims reluctantly and in extreme cases.
Males and females have two pairs of special odorous glands (prianal and abdominal).

social structure: The pine marten leads a solitary lifestyle, pairs are formed only during the breeding season. Animals mark the boundaries of the territory with a secret from odorous glands and urine.
Outside of the breeding season, the meeting of two males usually occurs without conflict.
The site of the male (10-25 km 2) often intersects with the sites of several females (5-15 km 2).

reproduction: from June to July, the female has several estrus, which last 1-4 days, the interval between them is 6-17 days. Mating lasts 30-50 minutes.
The female gives birth to cubs once a year. For childbirth, the female chooses a hollow in an old tree. In case of danger, she carries the cubs to another place or can eat the entire litter.
During the period of feeding the cubs, females hunt both at night and during the day.

Season/breeding period: June July. False estrus is observed in February-March.

Puberty: females and males mature at 14 months. age, but offspring usually have 2-3 years.

Pregnancy: pregnancy with a latent stage of development of 236-275 days, the pregnancy itself accounts for 27-28 days.

Offspring: the female gives birth to 2-7 blind, deaf and toothless puppies, weighing about 30 grams, 10 cm long. Newborns are already covered with sparse short fur. Eyes open at 34-38 days of life.
Lactation lasts 6-8 weeks, by the end of this age puppies weigh 68 grams. Young martens switch to solid food at 36-45 days of age, when their teeth erupt.
They start leaving the nest at 1.5 months. Puppies try to actively climb and jump at 2-2.5 months of age.
For another month, the young are with their mother, and then they leave the nest in search of their own site. Some of the cubs stay with their mother in the den until next spring.

Population/conservation status: currently there are about 200,000 individuals.
The pine marten can interbreed with sable, such barren hybrids are called kindus.

Nine subspecies of the pine marten are recognized: martes martes martes (large sizes), Martes m. borealis, M. m. latinorum, Caucasian pine marten ( M.m. lorenzi), Menorcan marten ( M.m. minoricensis), M.m. notialis, Central Russian pine marten ( M.m. ruthena), Pechora pine marten ( M.m. sabaneevi), Ural pine marten ( M.m. uralensis).

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Do you know why the stone marten is called that? Where does this cute little animal live? What does it eat? Can a stone marten live at home? We will try to answer these and many other questions in this article.

External features

The marten is one of the most widespread predators of the class Mammals. This small animal, which has a slender and flexible body, fluffy hair, is a serious enemy for many birds and animals. To date, scientists distinguish 8 types of martens. The most famous of them are stone and forest varieties.

The stone marten has an elongated fluffy and long tail. Her limbs are short. This animal has a triangular face. set high. Many people think that this animal is very similar to a ferret. There are undeniable similarities. The main difference is a forked light spot on the marten's chest, passing in two stripes to the front legs. But it is necessary to know that the Asian population of the species may not have a spot at all.

The coat of the animal is rather hard, painted in a grayish-brown or brownish-yellow hue. The eyes are dark. At night they glow reddish. The stone marten, the photo of which you can see in this article, leaves clearer marks on the ground than its forest "relative". This one moves little predator jumps, while the hind legs clearly fall on the trail of the front. As a result, prints remain, which hunters call "two-beads".

The white-haired marten (stone marten) differs significantly from the forest individual. She has little longer tail, the spot on the neck has a yellowish tint, the nose is darker, the feet are covered with hair. The stone marten is heavier and smaller in size. The body length of an adult animal is 55 centimeters, the tail is 30 cm. Weight is from 1 to 2.5 kg. Males are noticeably larger than females.

Stone marten: distribution area

This animal lives in the treeless mountains of Altai in the Caucasus, in the floodplain forests of Ciscaucasia, and sometimes in the cities and parks of the southern regions of Russia. This type of martens is widespread in Eurasia, in Mongolia and in the Himalayas.

It is also found in Ukraine, in Kazakhstan, Belarus, in Central and Central Asia. This animal does not live in forests, preferring open spaces with small shrubs and rare single trees, rocky terrain. That is why the animal was so named. Surprisingly, this small animal is not afraid of people at all, it can often be found in basements and sheds, in the attics of residential buildings.

Are you interested in the question of home maintenance? In captivity, the stone marten practically does not live. For this reason, it is rarely seen even in large zoos. True, in Germany, in the Central Zoo of Berlin, the Germans managed to create almost ideal conditions, as close as possible to natural environment a habitat.

Subspecies

Biologists have divided all stone martens into four subspecies.

1. European blond. Lives in some areas of the European part of the former Soviet Union and Western Europe.
2. Crimean white lady. As it is already clear, this is a resident of the Crimea. It has a slightly different tooth structure from other relatives, a small skull and a lighter color.
3. Caucasian white lady. This is the largest subspecies living in Transcaucasia, having valuable shiny fur and beautiful underfur.
4. The Central Asian white-haired woman chose Altai as her place of residence. Her chest patch is poorly developed. Has very thick fur.

Behavior in the natural environment

The stone marten is active at dusk and at night. During the day they sleep in the hollows of trees or nest in the nests of feathered predators. Most martens spend their lives on the branches of trees, so they feel very confident there - they climb trunks, jump from branch to branch. Their jump can reach 4 meters.

Martens quickly move on the ground. Each individual owns its own allotment, the boundaries of which it marks with a special secret. If the territory is violated by a stranger, then a conflict is possible between the animals. True, in males and females, the ranges quite often intersect. The area of ​​such allotments varies depending on the time of year. AT summer time more plots than in winter.

What does a marten eat

Martens are predators, so the basis of their diet is small animals - rodents, squirrels, rabbits, birds. Rural residents note that these animals are quite frequent guests of chicken coops. When the birds begin to rush about in a panic, even a completely well-fed marten will not be able to suppress its hunting instinct - it will pass all the birds.

Having caught their prey, predators break her vertebrae, suck out warm blood with her tongue folded into a tube. The stone marten is able to catch up and grab a bird that has lost its vigilance or climb into a nest and eat eggs. In summer, these animals catch various insects, frogs. Sometimes martens add plant foods to their diet, usually berries or fruits.

Hunting stone marten with traps

For experienced hunter marten is a worthy trophy. It is cunning, agile and fast predator, which is capable of avoiding various obstacles during the chase, maneuvering and hiding in the trees. The official season starts in November. As we have already said, this is a nocturnal predator (stone marten). Hunting is possible only at night. Only in this case you will not return home empty-handed.

by the most effective way hunting for this animal is the use of traps. Most often, trap number 1 is used. Each hunter has own secrets their installations. Let's share one of them. Traps should be set on tree branches at a height of from one to two meters, then they will not be covered with snow. And when the animal falls into a trap, he will not have a chance to get out (in limbo).

The bait trap must be placed near well-trodden forest paths. Hunting is not mass, since the number of these animals is not too large. In addition, it is quite difficult to get such an animal. Nevertheless, for the most adventurous hunters, the marten is a welcome trophy.

A predatory mammal with long valuable fur from the mustelid family and the genus of martens is called the pine marten. In another way, it is also called zheltodushka. pine marten elongated and graceful.

Its valuable and beautiful fluffy tail has dimensions that are more than half the length of the body. The tail not only serves as an ornament of this beast, with its help the marten manages to maintain balance when jumping and while climbing trees.

Its four short legs are characterized by the fact that their feet are covered with wool with the advent of winter cold, which helps the animal to easily move through snowdrifts and ice. These four paws have five toes, with curved claws.

They can retract half way. The muzzle of the marten is wide and elongated. The animal has a powerful jaw and mega sharp teeth. The ears of the marten are triangular, relatively large in relation to the muzzle. From above they are rounded and with a yellow edging.

The nose is pointed, black. The eyes are dark, at night their color becomes copper-red. Forest marten in the photo leaves only positive impressions. In appearance, this is a gentle and harmless creature with an innocent look. The beautiful color and quality of marten wool are striking.

It ranges from light chestnut with yellow to brown. In the region of the back, head and legs, the coat is always darker than in the region of the abdomen and sides. The tip of the animal's tail is almost always black.

hallmark martens from all other breeds of mustelids is a yellow or orange coat color in the neck area, which extends beyond the front legs. From this came the second name of the marten - zheltodarka.

The parameters of a predator are similar to those of a large one. Body length 34-57 cm. Tail length 17-29 cm. Females are usually 30% smaller than males.

Features and habitat of the pine marten

The entire forest zone of Eurasia is densely populated by representatives of this species. Forest martens live on the large area. They are found in places ranging from Great Britain to Western, the Caucasus and the Mediterranean islands, Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, Iran and Asia Minor.

The animal prefers the nature of mixed and deciduous forest areas, less often conifers. Rarely marten sometimes settle high in mountain ranges, but only in those places where there are trees.

The animal prefers places with trees with hollows. In the open area can go out solely to hunt. Rocky landscapes are not the right place for the marten; she avoids it.

There is no stable abode in the zheltodushka. She finds refuge in trees at a height of 6 meters, in hollows, abandoned nests, crevices and windbreaks. In such places, the animal stops for a day's rest.

With the advent of twilight, the predator begins to hunt, and after it she seeks refuge in another place. But with the onset severe frosts her life position may change a bit, marten for a long time sits in a shelter, eating pre-stored provisions. The pine marten tries to settle away from people.

Pictures with pine marten they make you look at her with tenderness and some irresistible desire to take the animal in your hands and stroke it. The more hunters valuable fur of these animals and the less forest area with favorable conditions for the habitat of martens, the more difficult it becomes for them to live and breed. European pine marten in Russia is still considered an important commercial species due to the value of its fur.

Character and lifestyle

The pine marten, more than any other representatives of its kind, prefers to live and hunt in trees. She easily climbs their trunks. Her tail helps her cope with this, it serves as a rudder for the marten, and sometimes as a parachute, thanks to which the animal jumps down without any consequences.

The tops of the trees are absolutely not afraid of the marten, she easily moves from one branch to another and can jump four meters. She also jumps on the ground. He swims skillfully, but rarely does it.

In the photo, a pine marten in a hollow

It is a nimble and very fast animal. It can travel a long distance fairly quickly. Her sense of smell, sight and hearing are highest level, which helps a lot on hot. By nature, this is a funny and inquisitive animal. Martens communicate with each other by purring and growling, and sounds similar to chirping come from the kids.

Listen to the meow of the pine marten

Food

This omnivore is not particularly picky about food. The marten feeds depending on the season, habitat and food availability. But she still prefers animal food. The most favorite prey of martens are squirrels.

Very often, the predator catches the squirrel right in its own hollow, but if this does not happen, it hunts for it for a long time and persistently, jumping from branch to branch. There is a huge list of representatives of the animal world that fall into grocery basket martens.

Starting from small snails, ending with hares and hedgehogs. Interesting Facts about the pine marten they say that she kills her victim with one bite to the back of the head. The predator does not refuse carrion either.

The animal uses summer and autumn to replenish its body with vitamins. In the course are berries, nuts, fruits, everything that is rich in useful microelements. Some of them the marten prepares for the future and saves in a hollow. The most favorite delicacy of the zheltodarka are blueberries and mountain ash.

Reproduction and life expectancy of the pine marten

In the summer, these begin the rut. One male mates with one or two females. In winter, martens often have a false rut. At this time, they behave restlessly, become belligerent and inflated, but mating does not happen.

Pregnancy of the female lasts 236-274 days. Before giving birth, she takes care of the shelter and settles there until the babies appear. 3-8 cubs are born. Although they are covered with a little fur, the kids are blind and deaf.

Pictured is a young pine marten

Hearing and them erupt only on the 23rd day, and the eyes begin to see on the 28th day. The female can leave the babies for the duration of the hunt. In case of possible danger, she transfers them to more safe place.

At four months they can already live independently, but for some time they live with their mother. The marten lives up to 10 years, and when good conditions her life expectancy is about 15 years.