The European pine marten inhabits Europe and mainly lives in large spruce or alder forests, and in oak woods. Such areas usually have many trees with hollows, where martens rest and breed. The fact that martens make tree hollows their homes has been mentioned in Sergey Aksakov’s Notes of a Hunter:

Martens make such hollows, bird of prey nests, and abandoned squirrel homes their shelters. This is where these animals spend the day, while during the dark hours they go hunting.

The marten always has chestnut or dark brown fur, and its throat has a yellow-coloured marking. Its winter fur is long and soft, and in summer it becomes short and wiry. Like many other animals from the Mustelidae family, the marten has an elongated body, short legs, and paws covered with hair.

The European pine marten will eat anything, but most of all it likes to hunt striped field mice, squirrels, and birds, as well as to destroy nests and consume bird eggs. Sometimes the animals catch reptiles, frogs, snails, and various insects. In autumn, martens complement their diet with fruit, wild berries, and nuts. From late summer to late autumn, they collect and cache food in order to comfortably survive the cold season.

In the second year of life, martens are already considered mature. From June to early August, they look for a mate. To breed, martens first make dens in tree hollows. Litters of usually three to four kits are born from April to May. The young are born blind and helpless, covered with thick dirty-yellow fur, which gradually becomes dark like the fur of their parents. The newborn martens are fed on milk for 45 days. When they have their first teeth, the mother starts bringing them food of animal origin. All marten family members stick together until autumn. In late September, the young already grow up to the size of adult martens and begin to live independently.