Diet

The European pine marten is omnivorous and hunts a variety of small animals, rodents, squirrels, hares, birds, insects, frogs and does not pass up carrion. When possible, the marten feeds on berries, fruit, nuts and honey. It eats bird eggs from nests, and will generally eat anything it can hunt. No specific studies have been carried out in Latvia on the negative effects of martens on birds, but martens are an important threat to primary cavity nesters. This is also demonstrated by ornithologists’ visits to cage plots. Chaffinches, European pied flycatcher, common goldeneye, wood pigeons, true owls, common chiffchaffs and Eurasian golden oriole are terrorised by martens. At night, martens are a real threat to ground-nesting passerines: hazel grouse, black grouse, wood grouse.

Habitat

The European pine marten usually lives in dense forests and burrows in the hollows of old trees or piles of sawdust.

Important and interesting facts

Martens are the only mustelids with semiretractable claws. This enables them to lead more arboreal lifestyles, such as climbing or running on tree branches, although they are also relatively quick runners on the ground.

Although they are preyed upon occasionally by golden eagles, red foxes, wolves, and wildcats, humans are the largest threat to pine martens.

The marten is nocturnal and during the day it rests in its roost, hunting at dusk. The marten has very good hearing, which allows it to hunt in the dark.

Information sources: latvijasdaba.lv, Wikipedia

Photo: pixabay.com