Thebeech marten (Martes foina), also known as thestone marten,house marten orwhite breasted marten, is a species ofmarten native to much ofEurope andCentral Asia, though it has established a feral population inNorth America. It is listed asLeast Concern on theIUCN Red List on account of its wide distribution, its large population, and its presence in a number of protected areas.[1] It is superficially similar to theEuropean pine marten, but differs from it by its smaller size and habitat preferences. While the pine marten is a forest specialist, the beech marten is a more generalist and adaptable species, occurring in a number of open and forest habitats.[2]
Its most likely ancestor isMartes vetus, which also gave rise to the pine marten. The earliestM. vetus fossils were found in deposits dated to theWürm glaciation inLebanon andIsrael. The beech marten likely originated in theNear East or southwesternAsia, and may have arrived in Europe by theLate Pleistocene or the earlyHolocene. Thus, the beech marten differs from most other European mustelids of theQuaternary, as all other species (save for theEuropean mink) appeared during theMiddle Pleistocene. Comparisons between fossil animals and their descendants indicate that the beech marten underwent a decrease in size beginning in the Würm period.[3] Beech martens indigenous to theAegean Islands represent a relic population with primitive Asiatic affinities.[4]
The skull of the beech marten suggests a higher adaptation than the pine marten towardhypercarnivory, as indicated by its smaller head, shorter snout and its narrower post-orbital constriction and lesser emphasis on cheek teeth. Selective pressures must have acted to increase the beech marten's bite force at the expense ofgape. These traits probably acted on male beech martens as a mechanism to avoid both intraspecific competition with females and interspecific competition with the ecologically overlapping pine marten.[2]
A small subspecies, with an average-sized skull. In winter, its back varies from light greyish tawny to completely dark brown. The guard hairs are tawny or chestnut brown, while the underfur is very light, pale-grey. The flanks and withers are slightly lighter than the back, and the belly darker. The legs are dark brown and the throat patch pure white. The patch is variable in size and shape.[6]
A smaller subspecies thannehringi, with lighter fur. The back is moderately dark greyish-tawny. The flanks are lighter, but of the same tone as the back. The guard hairs are dark-tawny, while the underfur is almost white. The tail is dark brown. The throat patch is very variable, being sometimes completely undefined.[8]
A large subspecies with a massive skull. The winter coat is quite dark, brownish-tawny or dark tawny with a greyish tint. The flanks are lighter than the back, and the tail and feet are dark brown. The throat patch varies in form and size, but shows a tendency towards reduction.[10]
Skull, as illustrated inMerriam'sSynopsis of the weasels of North AmericaVarious throat patch variations, as illustrated inPocock, R. I.The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Vol. Mammalia 2.The elongated body combined with short legs enable the beech marten to move in narrow spaces easilySkull of a beech marten
The beech marten is superficially similar to thepine marten, but has a somewhat longer tail, a more elongated and angular head and has shorter, more rounded and widely spaced ears. Its nose is also of a light peach or grey colour, whereas that of the pine marten is dark black or greyish-black.[12] Its feet are not as densely furred as those of the pine marten, thus making them look less broad, with the paw pads remaining visible even in winter. Because of its shorter limbs, the beech marten's manner oflocomotion differs from that of the pine marten; the beech marten moves by creeping in apolecat-like manner, whereas the pine marten andsable move by bounds.[13] The load per 1 cm2 of the supporting surface of the beech marten's foot (30.9 g) is double that of the pine marten (15.2 g), thus it is obliged to avoid snowy regions.[14]
Its skull is similar to that of the pine marten, but differs in its shorter facial region, more convex profile, its largercarnassials and smallermolars.[15] The beech marten'spenis is larger than the pine marten's, with thebacula of young beech martens often outsizing those of old pine martens. Males measure 430–590 mm in body length, while females measure 380–470 mm. The tail measures 250–320 mm in males and 230–275 mm in females. Males weigh 1.7–1.8 kg in winter and 2–2.1 kg in summer, while females weigh 1.1–1.3 kg in winter and 1.4–1.5 kg in summer.[16]
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 the tail is sparsely furred. The colour tone is lighter than the pine marten's. Unlike the pine marten, its underfur is whitish, rather than greyish. The tail is dark-brown, while the back is darker than that of the pine marten. The throat patch of the beech marten is always white. The patch is large and generally has two projections extending backwards to the base of the forelegs and upward on the legs. The dark colour of the belly juts out between the forelegs as a line into the white colour of the chest and sometimes into the neck. In the pine marten, by contrast, the white colour between the forelegs juts backwards as a protrusion into the belly colour.[13]
A litter of beech marten kits in а farm outbuilding in the village of Orlintzi,BulgariaBeech marten fighting aEuropean otter, as illustrated inBrehm's Life of Animals
The beech marten is mainly acrepuscular andnocturnal animal, though to a much lesser extent than theEuropean polecat. It is especially active during moonlit nights. Being a more terrestrial animal than the pine marten, the beech marten is lessarboreal in its habits, though it can be a skilled climber in heavily forested areas. It is a skilled swimmer, and may occasionally be active during daytime hours, particularly in the summer, when nights are short. It typically hunts on the ground. During heavy snowfalls, the beech marten moves through paths made byhares orskis.[17]
In an area of northeastern Spain, where the beech marten still lives in relatively unmodified habitats, one specimen was recorded to have had a home range of 52.5 ha (130 acres) with two centres of activity. Its period of maximum activity occurred between 6 PM and midnight. Between 9 AM and 6 PM, the animal was found to be largely inactive.[18] In urban areas, beech marten's dens are almost entirely in buildings, particularly during winter.[19] The beech marten does not dig burrows, nor does it occupy those of other animals. Instead, it nests in naturally occurring fissures and clefts in rocks, spaces between stones inrock slides and inhabited or uninhabited stone structures. It may live in tree holes at a height of up to 9 metres.[20]
Estrus andcopulation occur at the same time as in the pine marten.[21] Copulation can last longer than 1 hour.[22] Mating occurs in the June–July period, and takes place in the morning or in moonlit nights on the ground or on the roofs of houses. Thegestation period lasts as long as the pine marten's, lasting 236–237 days in the wild, and 254–275 days in fur farms.Parturition takes place in late March-early April, with the average litter consisting of 3–7 kits. The kits are born blind, and begin to see at the age of 30–36 days. Thelactation period lasts 40–45 days. In early July, the young are indistinguishable from the adults.[21]
The beech marten's diet includes a much higher quantity of plant food than that of the pine marten and sable. Plant foods eaten by the beech marten includecherries,apples,pears,plums,black nightshade,tomatoes,grapes,raspberries andmountain ash. Plant food typically predominates during the winter months.Rats,mice andchickens are also eaten. Among bird species preyed upon by the beech marten,sparrow-like birds predominate, thoughsnowcocks andpartridges may also be taken. The marten likes to plunder nests of birds includingpasserines,galliformes and smallowls, preferring to kill the parents in addition to the fledglings. Although it rarely attacks poultry, some specimens may become specialized poultry raiders, even when wild prey is abundant.[14] Males tend to target large, live prey more than females, who feed on small prey and carrion with greater frequency.[2]
In areas where the beech marten is sympatric with the pine marten, the two species avoid competing with one another by assuming differentecological niches; the pine marten feeds on birds and rodents more frequently, while the beech marten feeds on fruits and insects.[23] However, in one known case, a subadult beech marten was killed by a pine marten. The beech marten has been known to killEuropean polecats on rare occasions.Red foxes,lynxes,mountain lions,golden eagles, andEurasian eagle-owls may prey on adults, and juveniles are vulnerable to attack bybirds of prey andwildcats. There is, however, one case, from Germany, of a beech marten killing a domestic cat.[21][24][25]
The beech marten is present inWisconsin, particularly near the urban centres surroundingMilwaukee. It is also present in several wooded, upland areas in theKettle Moraine State Forest, and in nearby woodlands ofWalworth,Racine,Waukesha and probablyJefferson Counties. North American beech martens are likely descended from feral animals that escaped a private fur farm inBurlington during the 1940s.[26] They have also been listed as being released or having escaped in 1972.[27]
Although the beech marten is a valuable animal to thefur trade, its pelt is inferior in quality to that of the pine marten and sable. Beech marten skins on the fur markets of theSoviet Union accounted for only 10–12% of the market presence of pine marten skins. Beech martens were caught only in the Caucasus, in theMontane part of Crimea and (in very small numbers) in the rest of Ukraine, and in the republics of Middle Asia. Because animals with more valuable pelts are rare in those areas, the beech marten is of value to hunters on the local market. Beech martens are captured withjaw traps, or, for live capture, withcage traps. The shooting of beech martens is inefficient, and trailing them with dogs is only successful when the animal can be trapped in a tree hollow.[30]
Since the mid-1970s, the beech marten has been known to occasionally cause damage to cars. Cars attacked by martens typically have cut tubes and cables. The reason for this behaviour is not fully known, as the damaged items are not eaten. There is, however, a seasonal peak in marten attacks on cars in spring, when young martens explore their surroundings more often and have yet to learn which items in their habitat are edible or not.[31]
On 29 April and 21 November 2016, two beech martens shut down theLarge Hadron Collider, the world's most powerfulparticle accelerator, by climbing on 18–66 kVelectrical transformers located above ground near theLHCb andALICE experiments, respectively.[32][33][34] The second marten was stuffed and put on display in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum.[35]
^Herra, J.; Schley, L.; Engel, E. & Roper, T. J. (2010). "Den preferences and denning behaviour in urban stone martens(Martes foina)".Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde.75 (2):138–145.Bibcode:2010MamBi..75..138H.doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2008.12.002.
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