The European pine marten
THE EUROPEAN PINE MARTEN A sighting of a female European Pine marten The European pine marten (Martes martes) is a small, cat-sized animal that belongs to the weasel family. It lives in forests across most of Europe, from Scotland and Ireland to parts of Asia Minor and Iran. Although it was once rare in many places, this shy forest animal is now making a great comeback. The pine marten has soft brown fur with a creamy-yellow patch on its chest, which looks like a little scarf. Its body grows up to about 53 centimeters long, with a bushy tail of around 25 centimeters. It weighs about 1.5 to 1.7 kilograms. Pine martens are light, quick, and great at climbing trees. They prefer woodlands and forests, where they can hunt and hide among the trees. In Scotland, they used to be found only in the northwest, but now they have spread across the Highlands and even reached the islands of Skye and Mull. In England, they were thought to be extinct for over a century, but one was photographed ...