Baummarder Bremen

The pine marten inhabits large, older deciduous and mixed forests with mature trees and plenty of natural cavities. It is a true forest dweller and a culture-avoider that shuns open land and human settlements. During the day it rests in tree hollows, abandoned squirrel dreys or old raptor nests, and it is mainly active at dusk and through the night. As an exceptional climber it leaps up to four metres from branch to branch, using its bushy tail as a balance organ.

It lives solitary and territorial, marks its range with scent gland secretions and feeds opportunistically on voles, mice, squirrels, birds, eggs, insects and seasonally on berries and fruit. Across most of the DACH region it falls under hunting law but with long closed seasons. Classic methods are trap hunting with live-capture box traps, supplemented by stand hunting at bait sites and call hunting with a mouse squeaker or hare distress call. A confident visual identification before the shot is mandatory, since confusion with the very similar stone marten is easy.

The pine marten can be told apart by its silky chestnut-brown coat, dark nose, densely furred paw soles and yellowish, cream-coloured, undivided throat patch, while the stone marten shows a pure white, forked throat patch and a flesh-coloured nose. Although the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern overall, it reacts sensitively to forest fragmentation and the loss of old cavity trees. A measured, ethical harvest paired with habitat care and a careful species check is therefore standard practice.