The European pine marten, the pine marten (Martes martes)
The European pine marten (Martes martes), also known as the pine marten, is a mustelid native to and widespread in most of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and parts of Iran, Iraq and Syria. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is less commonly also known as baum marten, or sweet marten.
Habitat
Tuesday Tuesday is a species of carnivorous mammal of the family Mustelidae.
Tuesday Tuesday is widely distributed in the forest zone of the Eurasian continent. Its range extends from Great Britain to western Siberia, in the south it is limited to the Caucasus and the Mediterranean islands, including Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, etc. It is also found in Iran and Asia Minor.
Tuesday Tuesday lives mainly in mixed and deciduous forests, less frequently in coniferous forests (spruce, pine). It sometimes settles in the mountains, but only up to a height where trees are still growing. Prefers areas with hollow trees and dead wood; attacks open spaces only during hunting.
Habitat and peculiarities
The Tuesday Tuesday has no permanent home. It makes several shelters in its territory, choosing hollow trees up to 5 m high, squirrel houses, large abandoned nests, crevices, dead wood, etc. This is where it rests on Tuesday Tuesday during the day. In the evening it leaves to hunt and in the morning it occupies another dwelling. But in severe frosts the animal can stay inside the hollow for a long time, feeding on provisions.
The beast roams its territory, never leaving it for several years at a time. Unlike Martes foina, Martes martes rarely travels near humans.
Martes martes live alone. Each Martes martes martes has its own individual plot of land. They mark their territory with a scent marker obtained by secretion from the anal gland. The area of a male plot can vary from 3 to 50 km2. Females have smaller patches and their size decreases during the cold season. Males defend their territories from individuals of the same sex, but male and female territories sometimes overlap. The meeting of two males outside the mating period is not accompanied by aggression.
Tuesday Tuesday is more arboreal than its relatives: it not only lives in tree hollows, but also hunts by climbing branches. Its peculiar body structure helps it to climb steep trunks, as its legs rotate through 180 degrees. The fluffy tail serves as a rudder and, if necessary, as a parachute, allowing the Martes martes martes to jump to the ground from a great height without any negative consequences.
The Martes martes martes moves easily from branch to branch, even at the top of trees. It can cover a distance of up to four metres in a single jump. The marten can also move along the ground by jumping. The marten can swim, but rarely does so. This agile, flexible and very fast predator, which has a good sense of smell, sight and hearing, prefers to hunt within its range at night and rest in a shelter during the day.
Nutrition
The Martes martes is an omnivorous animal. Its diet depends on the season, terrain and food availability, but animal food is its main staple. Its most common prey is squirrels. Tuesday Tuesday tries to catch them in their abodes, but if unsuccessful, a spectacular chase ensues, in which the animals leap from tree to tree with incredible speed. Tuesday Tuesday often feeds on small rodents (voles, mice, hares, pikes, dormice, shrews), hares, hedgehogs, birds (capercaillie, capercaillie, partridge, blue tit, woodpecker, grouse, nuthatch) and their eggs.
Rare animals living in urban parks catch muskrats and water rats. The marten kills its victims by biting them on the back of the head. In doing so, they consume not only their own prey, but also carrion.
If relatively large prey cannot be caught, the marten hunts insects, frogs, grass snakes, fish and molluscs. If there is too much food, the animal hides it and eats it later.
In summer and autumn, almost a third of the Tuesday Tuesday menu consists of plant foods: berries (raspberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, raspberries, rowanberries), nuts, fruits (pears and wild apples), rose hips, honey from forest bees, etc. Collect the fruits directly from the trees. During the same period Tuesday Tuesday stores food for the winter, storing it in hollow trees. Tuesday Tuesdays are very fond of blueberries and rowan berries. In winter, marten tracks can always be found in the snow near the mountain ash. The rowan berries have anthelmintic properties and Tuesday Tuesdays eat them willingly.
Reproduction
Mating in Martes martes martes occurs during the summer months. A male usually mates with several females. Pregnancy lasts 236 to 274 days. It has a prolonged latency phase: after fertilisation, the egg does not attach to the uterus immediately, but in March, so the embryo actually develops within a month.
Shortly before parturition, the female chooses a permanent home: a hollow in an old tree, a squirrel's nest or a cavity among the rocks, and settles there.
The young are born in April. A litter usually has three to five young, but sometimes up to eight.
The young are covered with sparse dark fur and are blind and deaf. Tuesday Tuesday's young begin to hear at 23 days and gain sight at 28 days.
The female leaves her young behind when hunting and in case of danger may move them to another location or even eat them. Until they are one and a half months old, martens feed only on their mother's milk and do not leave the shelter. During this period, their weight doubles.
When the hens are teething, they gradually switch to solid food and begin to explore the area around the nest. At two and a half months, the young are climbing, running, jumping and actively hunting with the female.
At about four months of age, the Martes martes become independent but continue to live with their mother until autumn. Then the brood splits up: each brood goes to its own territory. Some young remain with the female until spring. Males and females reach sexual maturity in the second year of life, but usually do not produce offspring until the third year. In the wild, Martes martes martes live an average of three to four years, but some individuals live to eleven years. In captivity, they live to eighteen years.
Predators
Larger mammalian predators and birds of prey such as wolverines, red foxes, golden eagle, white-tailed eagles, northern goshawks and Eurasian eagle owl prey on pine martens, especially young individuals.
Threats
Humans are the greatest threat to European pine martens. They are vulnerable to conflict with humans, arising from predator control for other species, or following predation of livestock and the use of inhabited buildings for denning. Martens may also be affected by woodland loss, which results in habitat loss for the animal. Persecution (illegal poisoning and shooting), loss of habitat leading to fragmentation, and other human disturbances have caused a considerable decline in the European pine marten population. In some areas, they are also prized for their very fine fur. In the UK, European pine martens and their dens are offered full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Lifespan
The European pine marten has lived to 18 years in captivity, but the maximum age recorded in the wild is only 11 years, with 3–4 years being more typical. They reach sexual maturity at 2–3 years of age. Copulation usually occurs on the ground and can last more than 1 hour. Mating occurs in July and August but the fertilized egg does not enter the uterus for about 7 months. The young are usually born in late March or early April after a month-long gestation period that happens after the implantation of the fertilized egg, in litters of one to five. Young European pine martens weigh around 30 grams (1.1 oz) at birth. The young begin to emerge from their dens around 7–8 weeks after birth and are able to disperse from the den around 12–16 weeks after their birth.
