Stone Marten
The stone marten (Martes foina), also called the beech marten or house marten, is a slender, agile carnivore of the weasel family that lives from Portugal and Spain across Europe and the Middle East to Central Asia, the Himalayas and Mongolia. It is about the size of a small house cat but longer and much lighter, with gray brown to dark brown fur, a long bushy tail and a pure white bib on the throat that usually splits into two branches running down onto the front legs. It is the most adaptable of the European martens: it lives on rocky slopes, in scrub, farmland, villages and towns, and in the Himalayas up to about 4,200 meters. By day it rests in rock crevices, barns and attics, and at night it hunts rodents, birds and eggs and eats a lot of fruit. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and nearby countries it is famous for climbing into parked cars and biting through cables and hoses. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with a stable population.
What is a stone marten? Beech marten, house marten and other names
The stone marten is a slender, climbing carnivore of the genus Martes, part of the weasel family (Mustelidae), the same family as weasels, stoats, otters, badgers and wolverines. It is a kind of weasel in the broad sense, but much bigger, closer in size to a small house cat, with a long bushy tail, rounded ears and a white bib on the throat. Its scientific name is Martes foina, and in English it has several common names. Stone marten refers to its love of rocky places and stone buildings, beech marten is an old name still common in field guides, and white breasted marten refers to its bib. In parts of Europe it is also called the house marten, because it lives so close to people, although in English that name is mostly searched by mistake for a bird, the common house martin. In German it is the Steinmarder, in French the fouine, in Italian the faina, in Portuguese the fuinha and in Spanish the garduña. Its closest neighbor is the pine marten (Martes martes), which shares much of Europe with it and has its own page on this site. The genus also includes the sable, the American and Pacific martens, the Japanese marten, the yellow throated marten and the Nilgiri marten.
Stone marten vs pine marten: how to tell them apart
The stone marten and the pine marten look alike at first glance, and across much of Europe they live side by side, so the details matter. The bib is the best clue. A stone marten has a pure white bib that usually splits into two branches running down onto the front legs, as in the photos on this page. A pine marten has a creamy yellow to orange throat patch that ends in a single rounded point on the chest. The nose helps too: paler and often pinkish in the stone marten, dark brown or black in the pine marten. The stone marten also has smaller ears, slightly shorter legs, a longer tail compared with its body and coarser fur that looks grayer, because the pale underfur shows through. Habitat is a useful hint but not proof. Stone martens are happy on rocky ground, in farmland, villages and city suburbs, where they often sleep in attics and barns, while pine martens stick mostly to woodland. In Ireland, Britain, Norway, Sweden and Finland only the pine marten lives in the wild, so a marten seen there is never a stone marten. Across most of Asia, from Israel to Mongolia, it is the other way around and only the stone marten occurs.
Where do stone martens live?
The stone marten has one of the widest ranges of any marten, stretching from the Atlantic to the edge of the Gobi. It lives across the Iberian Peninsula, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, central Europe, mainland Italy (but not Sardinia or Sicily), the Balkans and Greek islands such as Crete. Farther east it reaches Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries, where it is less common, and then runs through Turkey, the Caucasus, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Iran into Central Asia, the Himalayas from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Nepal and Bhutan, western China and Mongolia. It is absent from Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The stone marten is a generalist that avoids only dense, wet forest and the far north. It lives on rocky slopes and in gorges, in scrub, open woodland, olive groves, orchards and vineyards, and it has moved into villages, towns and even big cities such as Vienna, Berlin and Zurich, where it nests in attics, garages and wall cavities. In the mountains of Asia it lives among rocks and juniper woodland, and in the Himalayas it has been recorded up to about 4,200 meters, far higher than the pine marten ever goes.
How big is a stone marten? Size, weight and fur
A stone marten is about the size of a small house cat, but longer, lower and much lighter. It measures roughly 40 to 54 centimeters from nose to the base of the tail, with a bushy tail of about 22 to 30 centimeters, and adults usually weigh 1.1 to 2.3 kilograms. Males are clearly bigger than females, often by around a third. Compared with the pine marten it is a little heavier for its length, with shorter legs, smaller ears and a longer tail. The fur is gray brown to dark brown, darker on the legs and tail, and the pale gray underfur often shows through the guard hairs, which gives the coat a grizzled look. The bib on the throat and chest is pure white and usually forked, running down onto the front legs in two branches, although its shape and size vary a lot from animal to animal, and in some individuals the bib is small or tinged with cream. The nose is pale, often pinkish, and the soles of the feet stay mostly bare even in winter. Sharp semi retractile claws and a supple body make it an excellent climber of trees, rock faces and house walls.
What do stone martens eat? Rodents, eggs and a lot of fruit
Stone martens are opportunists, and they eat more fruit than any other European marten. Small rodents such as mice, voles and rats are an important part of the diet for much of the year, and they also take birds and their eggs, rabbits, lizards, frogs, beetles, crickets and carrion. Near people they raid henhouses and pigeon lofts and search through garbage and compost heaps. From summer into winter, fruit can become the main food, especially in southern Europe and the Middle East: cherries, plums, pears, figs, grapes, mulberries and blackberries, and in the mountains of Central Asia wild apricots, apples and walnuts. In Mediterranean areas, studies have found that fruit is often their main food in autumn. Seeds pass through the gut intact and are dropped far from the parent plant, often on rocks and paths, so stone martens work as seed dispersers for many wild shrubs and trees. In towns they are also very useful to people, because they hunt rats and mice around farms, sheds and gardens. Like other martens, they sometimes kill more birds than they can eat when they get into a closed coop, a habit that has made them unpopular with poultry keepers.
How do stone martens live? Territory, dens and kits
Stone martens are solitary and more strictly nocturnal than pine martens, usually leaving their dens after dusk and returning before dawn. Each adult holds a home range that it marks with scent from glands under the tail, on the belly and on the feet, and with droppings left in prominent spots such as rocks, walls, paths and roofs. The ranges of males are larger than those of females and often overlap several of them, and in towns a single marten may use a whole block of houses. By day, stone martens rest in rock crevices, caves, hollow trees, haylofts, barns, attics and wall cavities, and in summer they can be noisy at night as they move and play under the roof. Mating happens in summer, mostly between June and August, and the species shares an unusual trick with other martens: the fertilized egg stays dormant in the womb for several months before it implants, so the whole pregnancy lasts around eight to nine months even though the embryo only grows for about a month. The kits, usually two to four, are born blind and nearly hairless in March or April. They leave the den at around two months old, become independent by late summer and usually breed for the first time in their second year.
Stone martens and cars: why they bite cables and hoses
Stone martens are not dangerous to people. They are shy, avoid contact and, like any wild animal, will only bite if they are cornered or handled. Their real impact is on property. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and nearby countries, stone martens climb into the engine bays of parked cars, probably because they are warm and sheltered, and bite through ignition cables, coolant hoses and insulation. The habit was first noticed in Switzerland in the late 1970s and spread across central Europe over the following decades. The damage gets worse when a marten smells another marten's scent in the engine and attacks the parts that carry it, which is why a car parked in two different territories is at higher risk. German insurers have reported more than 100 million euros of marten bites to car cables and hoses in a single year, and one repair can easily cost several hundred euros. Owners use ultrasound devices, electric shock plates and wire mesh under the engine. In houses, stone martens nest in attics, where they make noise at night, leave droppings and damage insulation, and they may kill chickens if a coop is left open at night. On the positive side, they eat large numbers of rats and mice around farms and towns.
Is the stone marten endangered?
No. The stone marten is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, in an assessment carried out in 2015 and published in 2016, and the IUCN describes its population as stable. There is no global head count, because martens are hard to survey, but the species lives across a huge area, from Spain and Portugal to Mongolia, and in much of Europe it has done well by moving into villages and towns. The IUCN has marked the assessment as needing an update. The picture is less comfortable in some places. Road traffic is a leading cause of death in Europe, especially for young animals looking for a territory of their own, and stone martens are killed illegally where they take poultry or damage cars and houses. In some countries they can still be hunted or trapped. In Asia, the main problem is the fur trade: in Ladakh, in northern India, researchers have reported hundreds of stone marten pelts being smuggled out every year, and in several Central Asian countries little is known about how many remain. The stone marten's ability to live alongside people is its best protection, and in most of its range it needs little more than tolerance.
Where it is found
The Stone Marten can be found in places such as:
