About Martes foina (Erxleben, 1777)
The beech marten, scientifically Martes foina, is superficially similar to the pine marten, but differs in several physical traits. It has a somewhat longer tail, a more elongated and angular head, and shorter, more rounded, widely spaced ears. Its nose is light peach or grey, while the pine marten’s nose is dark black or greyish-black. Its feet are less densely furred than the pine marten’s, appearing less broad, with paw pads that stay visible even in winter. Shorter limbs give the beech marten a different locomotion style than the pine marten: beech martens creep in a polecat-like manner, while pine martens and sables move by bounding. The load per 1 cm² of the beech marten’s supporting foot surface is 30.9 g, double the pine marten’s 15.2 g, so beech martens must avoid snowy regions. Its skull is similar to the pine marten’s, but has a shorter facial region, a more convex profile, larger carnassials, and smaller molars. The beech marten’s penis is larger than the pine marten’s, and the bacula of young beech martens are often larger than those of old pine martens. Males have a body length of 430–590 mm, while females measure 380–470 mm. Male tails are 250–320 mm long, and female tails measure 230–275 mm. Males weigh 1.7–1.8 kg in winter and 2–2.1 kg in summer; females weigh 1.1–1.3 kg in winter and 1.4–1.5 kg in summer. The beech marten’s fur is coarser than the pine marten’s, with elastic guard hairs and less dense underfur. Its summer coat is short, sparse, and coarse, and its tail is sparsely furred. Its overall colour tone is lighter than the pine marten’s, and unlike the pine marten, its underfur is whitish rather than greyish. The beech marten’s tail is dark brown, and its back is darker than the pine marten’s back. It always has a large white throat patch, which generally has two projections that extend backward to the base of the forelegs and upward onto the legs. The dark colour of the beech marten’s belly extends as a line between the forelegs into the white chest fur, and sometimes into the neck. By contrast, in pine martens the white fur between the forelegs extends backward as a protrusion into the darker belly colour. The beech marten is a widespread species found across much of Europe and Central Asia. Its range extends west to Spain and Portugal, and east through Central and Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia to the Altai and Tien Shan mountains and northwest China. Within Europe, it is absent from the British Isles, Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, the northern Baltic, and northern European Russia. It is also present in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and was recently confirmed to live in northern Burma. The beech marten is mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, though it is active during daylight far more often than the European polecat. It is especially active on moonlit nights. It is more terrestrial than the pine marten and less arboreal in its habits, though it can climb skillfully in heavily forested areas. It is a skilled swimmer, and may occasionally be active during the day, particularly in summer when nights are short. It typically hunts on the ground. During heavy snowfalls, beech martens travel along paths made by hares or skis. Estrus and copulation in beech martens occur at the same time of year as in pine martens. Copulation can last longer than an hour. Mating happens between June and July, taking place in the morning or on moonlit nights, on the ground or on house roofs. Its gestation period is the same length as the pine marten’s: 236–237 days in the wild, and 254–275 days in fur farms. Parturition occurs in late March to early April, and the average litter has 3–7 kits. Kits are born blind, and their eyes open between 30 and 36 days of age. Lactation lasts 40–45 days, and by early July the young cannot be distinguished from adults. Although the beech marten is a valuable species for the fur trade, its pelt is lower quality than the pelts of pine martens and sables. In Soviet fur markets, beech marten skins made up only 10–12% of the volume of pine marten skins. Historically, beech martens were caught only in the Caucasus, the mountainous part of Crimea, in very small numbers in the rest of Ukraine, and in the republics of Middle Asia. Since more valuable fur-bearing animals are rare in these areas, the beech marten has local value for hunters. Beech martens are captured with jaw traps, or cage traps for live capture. Shooting beech martens is inefficient, and trailing them with dogs is only successful when the animal becomes trapped in a tree hollow.
