Pine Martens
In Redwall
- Alignment: Evil
- Appearance: Pine martens are like the ones in our world, but
bipedal and clothed.
- Diet: Meat; occasionally breads and vegetables and fruits and such.
- Typical Personality: The personality of pine martens is really
unknown; there have been only a couple pine martens in the Redwall
books. Most likely pine martens are one of the more intelligent
species, fairly crafty, and of course like all vermin, power-hungry.
Outside Redwall
- Classification: Order: Carnivora; Family: Mustelidae; Species: Martes
martes
- Other Names: European pine marten
- Appearance: Pine martens look much like weasels or ferrets with
their long body. They are generally a dark brown with a lighter brown
or yellow throat patch and a long, fluffy tail. Males are 51-54cm long
with a 26-27cm long tail and weigh 1.5-2.2kg. Females are 46-54cm long
with a 18-24cm long tail and weigh 0.9-1.5kg.
- Life Span: Most martens in the wild live to be less than eight
years old, but have lived up to 15 years in captivity.
- Diet: Martens eat small rodents, birds, beetles, carrion, eggs,
berries, and fungi. They mostly hunt on the ground but are also great
climbers and often go after squirrels in the trees.
- Habitat: Female martens have territory ranges of about 5-15 square
kilometers, while male territories are 10-25 square kilometers. They
prefer dense woods and make their dens in hollow trees, fallen root masses,
cairns, and scrub-covered cliffs. They are very solitary.
- Typical Personality: Martens are only semi-territorial. While
a male's territory may overlap a female's, a male's territory does not overlap
another male's, and a female's territory doesn't overlap another
female's. Sometimes, if a female's den is where her territory overlaps
her mate's, the male will protect the den. Otherwise, the female rears
her young on her own.
- Habits: Pine martens are nocturnal, mostly coming out at night and
at dusk.
- Life Cycle: The female has a litter each early spring of 1 - 5
young. After six weeks, the pups are weaned, and they leave their
mother's territory at 12 - 15 weeks of age.
- Sites for Further Research:
