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Stone or beech marten Martes foina Erxleben, 1777

Distribution

In India, the stone marten is distributed in the northern Himalayas from Ladakh in the west through Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh eastwards up to Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh between 1500-3600 m altitude (Pocock 1941, ZSI 1992, Choudhury 1997a, 1999, Datta 1999). Extralimitally it occurs from the drier regions of western Europe, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan (Pocock 1941, Wozencraft 1993).

Description

The stone marten has a dense and soft fur of a rich liver-chestnut hue with thick bushy tail. The colour and length of the coat is exceedingly variable seasonally, ranging from rich, reddish, chocolate-brown, pale ocherous-brown, tawny, drab-brown to grey brown, often with varied lighter patches on the dorsal surface. The lower side is little paler than the upper. The throat is typically white or yellowish with two brownish lines or patches of varying size. The legs and the tail are usually darker than the body. The soles of the feet are thickly haired in winter (Pocock 1941). It has a triangular head, broad between the ears, which are low set and rounded. The rhinarium is naked and pinkish-brown and the irides are almost black in colour. It has a long and slender body with comparatively short fore limbs. Males are generally bigger than females and weigh about 1.8 kg, standing about 12 cm high at the shoulders. The head to body length varies between 300-450 mm and the tail length 220 to 260 mm (Roberts 1977).

The subspecies of western Himalayas is M. foina intermedia Severtzow, 1976

Behaviour

The stone martens usually inhabit the temperate and alpine zones of Himalayas and are rarely found below 1500 m altitude. They are solitary, largely diurnal (Roberts 1977), but often hunt during night. They live both in forests, sheltering in hollows of trees and on the barren heights under rocks and boulders or in holes. In the higher elevation of Himalayas they prey largely on voles and mouse hares. Along the tree line they hunt squirrels, birds, lizards and frogs. They often supplement their diet with fruits and nuts, especially cherries. Unlike yellow-throated martens, which keep to the forest, the stone martens found in the vicinity of human settlements are said to raid poultry farms and pigeon-coops (Prater 1971). They are less arboreal than the yellow throated martens. Like other members of the family Mustelidae the stone martens have quite a repertoire of vocalizations, when suspicious or excited they make a growling noise, when cornered or attacked they emit loud screams (Roberts 1977). In stone martens mating takes place in February with a gestation period of nine weeks (135-152 days) and the litter size ranges between 2-7 (Kruska 1990).

Conservation status

It is listed in Schedule II part II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Appendix III of CITES and DD during the CAMP Workshop.

| Introduction | Mustelids | Viverrids | Herpestids | 
| Conservation Significance | References |