Feeding Pine Martens

A clip showing me feeding some of our pine martens, new and old, at the British Wildlife Centre.

[@renidlouhy9580]

Pine martens are so beautiful and cute. Being able to watch these shy animals through videos like yours makes me really happy!

[@bimbobaggypants4820]

They're like a hybrid of a cat and a dog!

[@starrahann8238]

Dream life: taking care of pine Martens

[@anu94]

Cruel beings if you would inform yourself you would find out

[@abdulrockman1]

@@anu94 They are predators, perfectly natural. Humans are the most cruel beings. If you need to hate hate people We are killing the planet.

[@Icarus_II]

@@anu94 Nope. Humans are the only cruel animals.

[@jeremypreston5009]

@@anu94 they are certainly ruthless and aggressive predators. But they need to eat.... And they need to eat meat. I don't know if you're religious but if you are it's your god's fault. They're just trying to live the life they were given by evolution or a diety. What are they supposed to do just starve to death?

[@anu94]

@@jeremypreston5009 inform yourself Martens don’t eat as much as they need They kill out of joy and if there are 32 chickens on the farm they would bite of each and every head off

[@marcmcfarland1153]

Nature's most adorable ninja assassins. Dudes got guts letting them lick jam off his finger like that

[@crazitaco]

I find it amusing how they just inhale those chick legs like potato chips xD

[@simonphoenix3789]

so lucky getting to interact daily with pine martens. they are one of my favorite animals along with badgers and otters.

[@TazHall]

They eat like "GIMME DAT!"

[@andrewcroxton2192]

I have 2 wild ones in my garden which get 2 eggs, Custard creams, and peanuts every night, They come up to my bedroom window would love to hand feed them but being disabled it’s not possible ,They are amazing to watch and so funny love your video, Andy

[@claypowell5350]

Martens are by far one of the adorable creatures on the planet!

[@anu94]

Killing squirrels and baby rabbits as well as adults ,just for fun by the fact Absolutely adorable , yeah

[@arriesone1]

@@anu94 Don’t you understand, this is Nature, this is the way Earth has evolved, animals eat other animals, I don’t like it either but that is the way all wild animals are, what about lions, tigers, eagles, in the past dinosaurs, they all kill, that is the way of their life, it’s a strange planet indeed.

[@moistmachine8493]

Hey man, loving your energy, you’ve gained their trust amazingly!

[@Zennofobic]

i'm on a pine marten / sable binge right now, absolutely find them adorable

[@Coastal_Cruzer]

I've been on that binge for four years now

[@carld9451]

I love the weasel family my favourite family I keep polecats and ferrets have you had any success in breeding them

[@nosyrbllib]

Beautiful

[@mallorga1965]

Adorable creatures!

[@albearob]

An amazing place. I'd love to have your job. Pine martens are awesome

[@justiceforsethrichwwg1wga160]

Clyde seems awesome!

[@challengeaccepted210]

Clyde is my favourite

[@danieldb631]

Ah yes. A good old fashioned game of "I have the food." How do you play? I have the food. What are the rules? I have the food. Not a bad trust building exercise.

[@janetturner7489]

Hi Matt, loved seeing you with the pine martens. I saw them last summer at Glenloy in Scotland, my favourite wild animal. I was planning on coming down to the wildlife centre and going up to Scotland again but with lockdown have had to call all off. Are there any stone martens in the UK? Stay safe.

[@TheIceGryphon]

Clyde is amazing calm. 😍

[@RaccoonNation]

I love how “snatchy” he is

[@ianthrasherwood]

Wow, Great work Matt !

[@jozsefnepreg942]

Tenyleg meg eszi a kicicat is a nyest ? Remelen ez csak rem hir !! Amugy nagyon szep kedves allat eltudnam kepzelni az otthonomba is. Hasonlok a cicakhoz szelidek jatekosak is.

[@amandadube156]

I saw a gorgeous american pine marten while hiking the other day. No one believed me, they thought I just saw a squirrel XD

[@HiyuMarten]

RIP Clyde

[@tatarjj2007]

Is Clyde your largest marten? He sure looks big (and cute!). A couple questions- Would their nails break your skin if you weren't wearing blue jeans? I would have thought that a species with retractable claws sharp enough for climbing maybe could give you a painful scratch even through your blue jeans. Do you always hand feed them or do you sometimes hide the food around their enclosure so that they have to search for it (what is it called- "enrichment")?

[@MattBinstead]

Clyde is our largest pine marten, and I would say slightly larger than your average male pine marten. Their nails can certainly break skin... Clyde is very gentle when climbing on me, but even through jeans I occasionally leave with scratches. A small price to pay for the privilege. We hand feed for our talks etc. Best way for people to see them, and they enjoy the engagement between the animal and keeper. For their main meal each day we hide food around the enclosure, or offer whole natural food. Both types of enrichment... although human interaction can also be seen as a form of enrichment.

[@maxparsons4513]

More pine marten videos please!

[@Zennofobic]

what kind of feet are you feeding them? You must know a butchers or processing plant that supplies you with them

[@BanburyCrossDenistoneEast]

Beautiful Animal amazing

[@raquelmunoz6455]

Hi Matt! What a lovely clip! Did you offer fruit too? And what kind of fruit? I have some questions about the feeding behaviour of the pine marten as frugivore. Could I send you a email? Thanks!

[@boofuls]

They are bigger than I imagined 🤔😊

[@indyreno2933]

Ictonychidae (Zorillas, African Striped Weasel, Marbled Polecat, Patagonian Weasel, Grisons, Wolverine, Tayra, Martens, and Fisher) vs Eupleridae (Malagasy Carnivorans) which one of these carnivoran families would win?

[@ianmangham4570]

Awesome, these are tough little mothers with some serious aggression 😈

[@shaunfelling3696]

looks pretty friendly to me...

[@LJ7000]

what an incredible snatch

[@MatthewCahn]

Great video. Are there any efforts to domesticate pine martins the way the Russians domesticated foxes?

[@fanpet3912]

No, at the moment they're more focused on, y'know... keeping them alive. Restoring their natural habitat. That sort of thing. But seriously, mustelids are notorious for being hard to domesticate, and pine martens are too sensitive population-wise to even think about that right now. The Russian foxes also aren't domesticated, it's a huge misconception.

[@ManOutofTime913]

​@@fanpet3912 Land-based weasels have the problem of being extremely good climbers and the marten and fisher seem to be the best at it. I think all mustelids have daily socialization and exercise requirements, but those two would have the easiest time fucking up your house, so you'd pretty much have to keep them confined to an outdoor enclosure with lots of vertical room. Very expensive. And that's not even talking the food and vet cost. It's just not a good idea in general.

[@kayedal-haddad]

How does a Pine Marten differ from a Mink or a Polecat?

[@joeblow9558]

Do martens respond positively to affectionate physical contact, or do they only understand aggressive and playful contact? It seems almost every video I see of people trying to pet various mustelid species- even domesticated ferrets!- the animal grabs the human's finger/hand in his/her mouth as if the animal thinks the human is attempting to play/wrestle. It doesn't look like an aggressive response, but it also doesn't look like the animal understands that the human is just trying to pet it. Then again, maybe nipping and mouthing IS affection to them. I was kinda wanting to get a ferret one day, so I was a little curious. Yes, I know they aren't closely related to martens but they do seem to share some behavioral similarities. What is the breeding program you guys are doing here? Are you attempting to release some of the babies to the wild but keep others for future breedstock? Or ??? Also, do you find these martens to be somewhat or fairly intelligent? I found a scientific paper that quoted some "allometrically corrected" (corrected for absolute body size effects) brain-to-body mass ratio (encephalization quotient) numbers for animals in Carnivora, and the marten family scored particularly highly (other high scorers in Carnivora include coyotes and foxes). If I remember correctly, martens have brains twice the size of ferrets, for example, despite being about the same size. Perhaps their high activity level reduces the relative metabolic cost of brain tissue?

[@MattBinstead]

+Joe Blow None of our pine martens are hand reared, we don't handle them unless absolutely necessary for health checks etc, and we don't try to pet them. I imagine they wouldn't like it if we did try. For rescued mustelids we have had to rear in the past, some do "tame" enough to pet... but I think they see it more as play. Many revert to a more wild behaviour when older. Ferrets have been domesticated, so take to handling far better. I have never kept a ferret, but have been told they can make good pets... they have a good bite though if they wanted to use it :-) Our breeding programme is working with other collections in the UK. It is hoped that kits bred in the future can be released in to the wild, but currently it is wild translocations that are taking place. Some even think that pine marten release may help control grey squirrels and help a red squirrel comeback in the UK. I have not seen the paper you mention, but believe most animals are intelligent for what they need to be. Pine martens are bigger than ferrets. They do show some intelligence in problem solving, for example I have seen ours drop eggs down a hill to help crack the shell when they can't do it with their teeth alone.

[@joeblow9558]

+Matt Binstead I believe the saying is, "every animal is as dumb as it can get away with being". Actually, dropping tough-to-crack objects is pretty clever, though it's a fairly common behavior among fairly intelligent animals (see crows and otters, for example). I'm surprised they have a hard time cracking egg shells when they are supposedly able to snap a hare's spine in a single bite. Maybe they drop them because it's just easier that way? Why bother hand-feeding them? Is it so that they are not just completely wild, and you can more easily catch/handle them when you have to?

[@MattBinstead]

+Joe Blow I wouldn't say I agree with that saying :-) Eggs can be awkward, not necessarily difficult, for them to crack... for sure if they choose to drop them it's because it is easier that way. Why waste energy. We are a conservation/education Centre. Many talks done when open to public, thousands of school children or college/uni students visit when closed to public which we give guided tours too. Much easier to engage them, and get our message across if they can actually see the animal we are talking about. We want them to be as wild as possible to show off natural behaviour, but friendly enough to come and feed and be seen by people. Training them to hand feed also allows us to observe them easier for health reasons etc, whilst keeping handling to a minimum.

[@johnmarshall9750]

Hello Matt Have to say the sanctuary looks fantastic and the marten's are surprisingly well behaved. Me and my Partner would love to see a Pine Marten in real life! Where abouts is this sanctuary? We would love to visit

[@MattBinstead]

Hi John. We are based in Surrey, near East Grinstead. Google "British Wildlife Centre" and you will find us. Maybe see you here one day.

[@johnmarshall9750]

Matt Binstead Hi again Matt, I visited today and watched your talk at 3:00pm with Dani the female. It was brilliant to see and you have a good knowledge Would love to return to see one of the larger males one time too John

[@MattBinstead]

Hi John, thanks for your kind comments. Our larger males are often active in the afternoon, especially the one opposite our wildcats. I often do the talk with him too.

[@PhilipK100]

Do pine martens exist in Northern Ireland that you’re aware of?

[@Ronny.81]

Yes they do

[@lordatum8139]

It's the most dangerous animal in it's segment

[@laustudie]

Had one running by like 20 cm away. Guess they do not smell well, he totally didnt notice me xD. He also has a habit of shitting right in front of my door, but i am okay with that he is cute. Always thought it was a cat that was running by, turn out it was him.

[@Racc00nR1ck]

Drogo. Daenerys. Someone’s a Lord of the Rings.

[@TheChewbee]

Are you rescuing those ?

[@fanpet3912]

This is the British Wildlife Centre. The pine martens are non-releasable educational ambassadors :) In short, yes, they were rescued!

[@entropy5126]

Im peanut butter and jealous

[@Dmoriarty1993]

So someone likes GOT?

[@568843daw]

Why do you have pine martens in the first place? I do not get it?

[@win_cole]

it's the British Wildlife Centre, I suppose they rescued them or slt

[@craigisaac806]

Awsome

[@china_sickness7005]

I know the professionals say it all of the time “these don’t make good pets” but I’m almost determined to own a pine marten. I’d give it a proper enclosure, buy it as young as possible, and bottle feed it as much as possible to let it imprint on me. I know how nippy weasels can be but a pine marten is definitely intelligent enough to be trained a little bit of discipline; especially when it’s hand raised. I’ve been interested in getting a serval for a long time, but they honestly seem like a bigger hassle than the pine marten

[@fanpet3912]

Obviously I don't know where you live, but they're endangered in the UK and very illegal to keep as pets

[@mhartv5300]

pine marten and mink are same or not

[@janetturner7489]

They're different animals.

[@Coastal_Cruzer]

Both mustelids but different species

[@dallankeaney8419]

I'd take care of them all right

[@joshSmacknMouths]

Ricky marten

[@venommouse7726]

No dislikes

[@kenthebean6619]

If you really cared for pine martens you'd release them, not keep them for displaying. All the excuses..couldn't survive in the wild, injured, human imprinted...yeah, yeah. You are only keeping them for your self-gratification and have no right to. LET THEM GO !

[@fanpet3912]

They literally have no survival skills... if they let them go they would die slowly and painfully.

[@kenthebean6619]

@@fanpet3912 utter crap. it's their instinct..it's what they are..it's their heritage...it's their dna....oh stupid..put your finger in there and see if they bite it! oh they would know how to do that now, would they!