Pine marten
Martes martes
Pine martens are around the size of a small cat, with short legs, rounded ears, a long body and a bushy tail. They are chestnut brown, with an unmistakable cream-coloured patch around their throat, which makes them look like they are wearing a bib.
Factsheet
Weight: One to two kg
Lifespan: Up to 10 years
Best time to spot: Year-round
Despite the pine marten’s furry, pretty appearance, you wouldn’t want to try giving one a cuddle: they have razor-sharp teeth for munching on small mammals and other food. Their large semi-retractable claws and thick fur on the soles of the feet provide grip as they bound up tree trunks chasing squirrels, but also serve them well while they scurry around the forest floor searching for voles, rabbits, eggs, fruit and fungi.
In summer, blaeberries (which grow across the National Park and make a delicious snack for humans too) can make up to 30% of a pine marten’s diet. This temporarily turns their droppings blue!
Spotting a pine marten is no easy task, these elusive creatures are shy and mainly nocturnal. The warmer months provide the best hope, as pine martens venture out less often in poor weather. Because of this behaviour, pine martens are often studied via footprints, droppings and bits of lost fur.
Pine martens are solitary creatures until the breeding season. Babies, called kits, are born in April in litters of up to five, and start life blind and deaf. By the time the young are six months old they are ready to start an independent life within their own territory.
Did you know?
Pine martens are around the size of a small cat, with short legs, rounded ears, a long body and a bushy tail. They are chestnut brown, with an unmistakable cream-coloured patch around their throat, which makes them look like they are wearing a bib.
Factsheet
Weight: One to two kg
Lifespan: Up to 10 years
Best time to spot: Year-round
Despite the pine marten’s furry, pretty appearance, you wouldn’t want to try giving one a cuddle: they have razor-sharp teeth for munching on small mammals and other food. Their large semi-retractable claws and thick fur on the soles of the feet provide grip as they bound up tree trunks chasing squirrels, but also serve them well while they scurry around the forest floor searching for voles, rabbits, eggs, fruit and fungi.
In summer, blaeberries (which grow across the National Park and make a delicious snack for humans too) can make up to 30% of a pine marten’s diet. This temporarily turns their droppings blue!
Spotting a pine marten is no easy task, these elusive creatures are shy and mainly nocturnal. The warmer months provide the best hope, as pine martens venture out less often in poor weather. Because of this behaviour, pine martens are often studied via footprints, droppings and bits of lost fur.
Pine martens are solitary creatures until the breeding season. Babies, called kits, are born in April in litters of up to five, and start life blind and deaf. By the time the young are six months old they are ready to start an independent life within their own territory.
Did you know?
Pine martens like to live in coniferous woodland, making their dens in safe, warm and dry tree cavities. If this isn’t available, they will also live in scrubland, rocky areas and crags, as long as there is a large area of woodland within the territory. They will also happily move uninvited into another creature’s den, occupying a deserted squirrel’s drey or bird’s nest.
Pine martens are part of the weasel family and were once widespread across the UK - until their fur became popular. From Victorian times onwards, they were often killed by gamekeepers focused on protecting birds. This caused them to almost become extinct by the early twentieth century.
With legal protection granted in the early 1980s, the downward population trend has been reversed, and martens are now widespread across much of the Sottish Highlands, including in the Cairngorms National Park.
Recent research indicates that pine martens help to control grey squirrel numbers, thus allowing red squirrel numbers to increase in areas where they had become very scarce. While there are no grey squirrels in the highlands, there’s always a risk of them spreading into the region, so the recovery of pine martens in the National Park could help to drive them away and support the protected red squirrel to thrive.
