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.
A distinctive feature of the marten from all other breeds of mustelids is the 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 over a 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 forests, 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 of severe frosts, her position in life may change somewhat, the marten sits in a shelter for a long time, 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 for the valuable fur of these animals and the less forest area with favorable living conditions for 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 at the highest level, which helps a lot in 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
Nutrition
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 the marten's grocery basket.
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 takes them to a safer 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 under good conditions, its life expectancy is about 15 years.
Small predators are great lovers of feasting on poultry, and often farmers are faced with sad cases of raids on chicken coops. The ferret, penetrating the barn at night, strangles and eats birds, chickens, chickens and even geese. Weasels, martens and ermines also occasionally hunt them. They live mainly in swampy areas, as well as in forests and fields. Small predators destroy rodents in the field, bringing great benefits to farmers. In turn, wolves and foxes feed on weasel and ferret.
Ferrets are very dangerous for chickens.
ferret behavior
If a ferret or a marten is noticed near the farm - expect trouble. During the hunt, small predators behave very carefully, so it is almost impossible to take them by surprise. If on a winter morning the owner of the chicken coop discovers peculiar traces in the courtyard, the so-called "two points", then the day before an uninvited guest was hosting here. Moving by jumps, these predators leave marks on the snow, by which it is easy to determine what kind of animal visited. In the weasel, the distance between the tracks is 20-30 cm, in the marten 30-40, and in the ferret about 50-60.
The forest ferret causes the greatest harm to bird farms. He is distinguished by cruelty and bloodthirstiness. Having a relatively small size (30-45 cm), it is capable of tearing apart and destroying as many poultry as it has enough strength in one raid.
Chicken coop after a predator visit
The ferret attacks and crushes its prey with its paws and then eats it. It mainly prefers small chicken, but most of the prey is made up of chickens. A lot of birds remain untouched after him. A ferret can only eat one or two carcasses at a time. Catching its victims, the predator does not eat their head, it bites it off. The delicate tissues of the head quickly rot and spoil the whole bird's carcass.
Weasel and marten behavior
To get rid of petting in the chicken coop, you need to know a few facts about this animal and understand the reason for its penetration to poultry.
Weasel, like the ferret, is a merciless and cunning animal that eats domestic animals. You need to have considerable dexterity to catch affection. For a human, this is almost impossible. Despite her cute appearance, she ferociously strangles and tears her prey to shreds. After she is sated, up to several dozen headless chickens or chickens remain in the barn.
Weasels rarely raid a chicken coop. She mainly eats rats and mice. Only in the absence of this food, she begins to hunt for poultry. In villages, there are cases when she sneaks into people's houses and attacks cats and dogs. The weasel has very sharp, needle-like teeth, so it can easily kill a small goose or chicken.
Weasel is difficult to see and catch. With the help of traps, this mission can be completed quite effectively.
Marten - the enemy of chickens
The marten is a beautiful nocturnal predator, the owner of natural grace and well-developed dexterity. This animal has long been credited with mystical and supernatural properties, thanks to the ability to make lightning attacks on its prey, and then quickly run away. Habitat - deciduous and coniferous forests, where the marten eats small birds, squirrels and rats. Leads a predominantly nomadic lifestyle. During the period of birth and feeding of her cubs, she settles in the hollows of trees or among the roots of old trees.
Usually the marten eats rodents and small birds, in rare cases it can catch a hare or black grouse. If there are villages with chicken coops near the forest, the animal may well become an uninvited guest there and feast on poultry. Making her way into the sheds or dwellings of a person, she first crushes and gnaws the throat of her victim, and then eats it. It is quite difficult to catch a marten in a chicken coop on your own due to the speed of its movements and dexterity. You will need specially equipped traps and traps.
Ways to get into the chicken coop
How these petty robbers get into sheds and chicken coops: it's all about the cracks and crevices formed in the foundation and walls of the premises.
The chicken house must be strengthened so that the enemies cannot climb
Anatomy allows these animals to squeeze through even very small openings. In the old, rotten walls of barns, it will not be difficult for a ferret to gnaw through rotten boards and get inside. They also use existing mouse holes. If there is not a single gap and there is no way to create a tunnel, the animal makes its way inside through the vent or independently digs a path under the chicken coop with claws and sharp fangs.
To prevent forest animals from sneaking into the room, all cracks and holes in the walls need to be repaired, and a grid should be installed in the ventilation system. When building a new house for chickens, geese and ducks, strong walls without cracks are very important, and the foundation must be made somewhat thicker than usual so that the animal does not make its way from the floor.
Protection methods
Getting rid of weasels and other pests is not so difficult. You just need to know the principle of operation of traps and make traps that will allow you to avoid the death of poultry in time. In order not to go broke after the raids of insidious ferrets and martens, people have come up with a lot of ways to catch them since ancient times.
To catch them yourself, you only need a few simple items:
- large bucket;
- ferret bait;
- two liter bottle. Then a trap is made, for the manufacture of which you will need:
- cut off the top and bottom of the plastic bottle;
- at one end, a bait is set from those products that the predator eats.
Traps and traps can be used to fight predators.
- a piece of pork or lamb is perfect for this, as fresh meat emits a characteristic smell and is an accessible prey;
- in the place where the animal was often seen, a chair is placed on which the bottle is placed so that the bait is on the edge of the chair;
- then a bucket is placed under the chair, with the expectation of catching the ferret when it falls off the chair;
- on the bucket you need to fix the lid so that at the slightest vibration of the bucket it falls from above and closes the opening of the bucket.
After the trap is set, all that remains is to wait for the new visit of the intruder and hope that the trick will work. When the ferret picks up a piece of meat, its body weight will outweigh the bottle, and it will fall into the trap. It is important to hear the noise in time and have time to tightly fix the lid. After that, the caught pest is taken away from the dwelling and released into the wild.
Large mousetraps, which are usually used to catch rats, will help keep the ferret away from the chicken coop. Having previously placed the meat there, the mousetrap is placed in the most visible place. Weasel and ferret quickly fall into such a trap.
Types of traps
To get rid of small pests and successfully deal with them, several types of traps were created, which are used to firmly hold the beast. They give a high guarantee and are plate and frame. When the animal gets into it, with the help of springs and plates, the device tightly pinches the neck and paws, completely immobilizing it. There are times when an animal runs away with a trap. To prevent this from happening, it must be tightly attached.
For petting, frame devices are used, which are relatively smaller than plate devices designed for large predators. The cunning animal is able to gnaw through the canvas, which serves as the basis of the trap, and escape.
To ensure that the ferret in the chicken coop remains only a bad memory, when building a farm, it is important to adhere to all safety rules and build the premises strong and without gaps.
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 little predator moves by jumping, while the hind legs clearly fall on the trail of the front ones. As a result, prints remain, which hunters call "two-beads".
The white-haired marten (stone marten) differs significantly from the forest individual. She has a slightly longer tail, a yellowish spot on her neck, a darker nose, and 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 issue 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 the natural habitat.
Subspecies
Biologists have divided all stone martens into four subspecies.
- European blond. It lives in some areas of the European part of the former Soviet Union and Western Europe.
- 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.
- Caucasian white lady. This is the largest subspecies living in Transcaucasia, having valuable shiny fur and beautiful underfur.
- 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. Martens spend most of 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. In summer, the plots are larger 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 an experienced hunter, a marten is a worthy trophy. This is a cunning, agile and fast predator, which is able to bypass various obstacles during the chase, maneuver and hide 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.
The most effective way to hunt this animal is to use traps. Most often, trap number 1 is used. Each hunter has his own secrets of setting them. 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.
Every year, the popularity of keeping unusual and wild animals at home is becoming more and more. Increasingly, people prefer such exotic pets as ferrets. The owners of these animals note that they are emotional, talkative and active. Unfortunately, they do not know how to pronounce words, but they can make all kinds of sounds that are characteristic of a particular situation.
The sounds made by ferrets serve not only to communicate with each other, but also as a way to inform the owner about the pet's discontent.
If you want to get a lot of fun and good mood from ferrets, you will have to learn to understand and recognize the sounds of ferrets. Whatever sound he makes, it definitely expresses his emotion or state. And their emotions can be as follows:
- joy;
- satisfaction;
- pain;
- excellent mood;
- fear;
- anger.
Almost every day from a ferret you can hear just such a sound. He emits the quacking of a duck or, as many say, the clucking of a chicken when he plays, walks, gets to know other animals, calls his own kind, including individuals of the opposite sex. With this sound, he shows joy, friendliness and high spirits. In addition, clucking can also be heard when the pet is excited or outraged by what is happening.
hiss
This sound is slightly less common. It can also be listened to when the ferret is playing. Only in this case, he does not feel joy from what is happening, but, on the contrary, gets angry, tries to take away his favorite toy, or he does not like something. Very often, ferrets, having played with their toy, try to drag it into their house, into a mink. At the same time, the size of the passage with the toy is incommensurable. And they will still puff up, get angry and try to do it, accompanying their actions with a hiss.
Also, the ferret hisses at the sight of his relative and before a possible fight, showing his anger, aggression and fighting mood. He hisses once, but he can do it many times, almost continuously up to 3 minutes.
A sharp piercing scream
The ferret screams very loudly and piercingly if it is in pain, for example, if they stepped on the tail or paw, they hurt themselves or something frightened them. Similar sounds will also be made during a fight or mating.
A ferret makes a sharp piercing cry during mating and when it feels severe pain.
Hearing such a cry, you need to urgently check how the pet is doing: perhaps he is in trouble and needs help.
Squeak
The ferret squeaks quite rarely. Usually the animal emits a weak squeak when sleeping. At the same time, he can pull his paws, tail or head. A stronger squeak may also indicate that the ferret felt pain.
If they took him in his arms, and he immediately uttered a squeak, it means that something is wrong with him - it is possible that he may have an injury in the place where his arm was wrapped. In this case, it should be shown to the veterinarian.
A quiet squeaking of a domestic ferret can be made even during sleep.
Summary
Have you already purchased or are planning to purchase a ferret? Try to understand the peculiarities of his behavior, to study what sound the ferret makes. He can not only make sounds, but also "speak" with body parts. For example, if he fluffed his tail and hissed at the same time, it means that he is very annoyed and aggressive with something. In this case, you need to pick him up and stroke him so that he calms down. There are many such examples. Watch your pet carefully, and the sound you make will help you build trust with him.
- Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 = Mammals
- Infraclass: Eutheria, Placentalia Gill, 1872 = Placental, higher animals
- Order: Order: Carnivora Bowdich, 1821 = Carnivores
- Family: Mustelidae Swainson, 1835 = Mustelids, martens, martens
Species: Martes foina Erxleben = Stone marten, (white marten)
The diet of the white marten abounds in plant foods: it is an even smaller predator than the pine marten and even sable. In gardens and wild fruit gardens, at the time of fruit ripening, martens eat a lot of apples, pears, plums, cherries, mulberries, raspberries, currants, and grapes. At the beginning of winter, they switch to berries of sucker, wild rose, juniper, hawthorn, privet, mountain ash. In spring and summer, sweet inflorescences of white acacia and linden are included in their food. In captivity, when you can choose between juicy fruits and meat, preference is often given to the former.
In the countryside, the animal, on occasion, attacks poultry, and sometimes even rabbits, in times of famine digs into garbage cans in search of leftover food, roams in attics and drags dried fruits, bran, honey, even sunflower seeds, pumpkin, watermelon.
The stone marten is more attached to a certain territory than its relatives - the pine marten, and even more so the marten. It depends on the “island” nature of the habitats suitable for it - rocky gorges between watersheds, small areas of forest in the steppe - pegs, ravines and ravines overgrown with shrubs. She prefers to settle in crevices and cracks of rocks, voids between stones, in lowland forests she occupies abandoned badger and fox holes, hollows at a height of 2 to 9 m above the ground. In settlements, the favorite shelters of this marten are the attics of residential and non-residential buildings, shrubbery barriers and heaps of brushwood made of fence stones. She also willingly settles in artificial shelters like hollows or holes in the ground, made specifically to attract this predator.
Stone martens are usually solitary animals, except during the mating season, when family groups meet. However, if you have to live quite crowded in a limited area, these animals do not show hostility to each other. In places where individual areas of animals partially overlap, they can hunt side by side, at a distance of several hundred meters. There are cases when in large buildings - hangars, temples, ancient ruins - several families coexisted together. The stone marten is more attached to a certain territory than its relatives.
In natural habitats, martens are territorial, their hunting territory averages from 12 to 211 hectares. The size of the plot changes with the season, it covers a much larger area in winter than in summer, which is determined by the amount of food available. Males always have much larger areas than females.
The rut of the white marten occurs in summer, in June - August, childbirth occurs in March-April. Pregnancy proceeds with a long latent period of embryonic development, so it lasts 236-276 days (about 8 months). Cubs, from 3 to 7, are born completely helpless, naked and with their ears and eyes closed. Babies begin to see clearly at the age of 4-5 weeks, feeding with milk continues for about one and a half months. Throughout this period, the female nurses and protects the puppies in the den. After weaning, young martens learn their mother's hunting techniques. At the end of June, grown-up babies leave the nest, in early-mid-July they almost do not differ from adults in size, and after the first autumn molt - in the structure of the fur cover. At the end of summer they become independent and their broods break up. Sexual maturity is reached in the second year of life at 15-27 months.
Natural enemies, especially young martens, can be considered a fox and an owl. The main limiting factors are climatic, high helminth infestation and poaching. The average life expectancy within the range is 3 years. The maximum life span in nature is 10 years. In captivity, this species can live over 18 years.
Stone martens are solitary and rather silent mammals, and only during the mating period can their cries be heard.
The white marten is a fur-bearing animal, but in terms of the quality of the skin it is inferior to the pine marten, and even more so to the sable, so its importance in the fur trade is small.
Living near the warehouses, the white marten plays an important role as a natural “deratizer”: there is a case when the special attraction of the stone marten to sugar storages saved people from having to deal with the extermination of mice and rats themselves. Sometimes the stone marten attacks domestic birds, and even climbs into chicken coops. In Western Europe, it is protected in many places as an element of the cultural landscape.
The following subspecies of stone marten are known.
The European white-beard, Maries foina foina (Erx1.), is distributed in Western Europe, apparently, the form that inhabits the middle regions of the European part of the USSR is close to it.
Crimean belodushka, M. f. rosanovi Magtino, is distinguished by a small skull and tooth structure. The general color of the fur in winter is smoky brownish, with an admixture of gray; undercoat pale grayish or whitish. The legs and tail are much darker than the back. The throat patch is snow-white. Lives in the Crimea.
Caucasian white-haired, M. f. nehringi (Sat.), larger, body length about 54 cm. Winter fur shiny dark brownish, with a fawn tinge; underfur pale-grayish-whitish. The tail and paws are shiny, black-brown. Inhabits the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.
Central Asian white-haired, M. f. intermedia (Sev.), a large subspecies with weakly developed throat patch. The winter fur is very lush, brownish in tone, with a pale whitish underfur. It lives in the mountains of Central Asia and Altai.
