Steinmarder Bremen

The stone marten is a true habitat generalist. Originally it occupied rocky outcrops, scree slopes and structured farmland, but today it occurs throughout villages, towns, woodland edges, quarries and open agricultural land. It actively seeks proximity to people and uses barns, hay lofts, attics, woodpiles, abandoned fox dens and brush heaps as daytime cover and as nursery sites. It is mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, lives a solitary life and defends its territory against conspecifics. As an omnivore it feeds opportunistically on voles, mice, rats, birds and their eggs, insects, carrion, fruit, and in settled areas also on household waste and free-ranging poultry.

In human settlements the species causes recurring conflicts. In attics it gnaws insulation, cables and timber and can cause considerable damage through droppings, urine and prey remains. Particularly well known is the marten damage to cars, where stone martens enter the engine bay and bite through ignition cables, cooling and brake hoses, rubber sleeves and insulation mats. The background is usually the territorial scent of a rival marten on the vehicle, which triggers aggressive marking and displacement behaviour. A reliable identification is essential, above all to tell the species apart from the pine marten. The stone marten shows a pure white, often two-pronged throat patch, a pale flesh-coloured nose, smaller ears and an overall lighter greyish-brown coat. The pine marten by contrast carries a yellowish, cream-coloured, undivided throat patch, a dark nose and a more chestnut-brown, silkier pelage.

In practice, trap hunting with welfare-compliant live-capture box traps is the most effective method. Beyond a valid hunting licence, most German states also require a documented trap-hunting course. Hunters typically use box or wooden box traps, set in darkened locations and inspected at least once and ideally twice a day. Useful baits are chicken eggs, poultry offal or fish scraps, applied after preliminary baiting at fixed sites. As a supplement, stand hunting at bait places or at known dens and call hunting are used. A measured harvest helps to reduce wildlife damage in settled areas and pressure on small game, without endangering the species, which is classified as Least Concern.