Mammals of the WorldYellow-throated Marten
Martes flavigula
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Mustelidae
- Genus
- Martes
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Russia|China|North Korea|South Korea|Taiwan|Afghanistan|Pakistan|India|Nepal|Bhutan|Bangladesh|Myanmar|Vietnam|Cambodia|Laos|Thailand|Malaysia|Indonesia|Brunei
- Realm
- Palearctic|Indomalaya
About this species
- Size
- Body 50–72cm (males); tail about two-thirds of body length
- Weight
- Males 2.5–5.7kg; females 1.6–3.8kg
- Diet
- Rats, mice, hares, snakes, lizards, eggs, ground-nesting birds, young deer and goral; also fruit and nectar
- Habitat
- Forest, from lowlands to alpine meadow (recorded to 4,510m in Nepal)
- Range
- Himalayas and hills of northern and north-eastern India; Southeast and East Asia
- Litter size
- 2–3 kits, rarely 4
The yellow-throated marten is a large, robust marten with a long, muscular body and a tail about two-thirds as long as the body. The fur is short and bright brownish yellow, the head and back are darker, the cheeks reddish, and the chest and lower throat orange-gold. The front paws and lower forelegs are black and the tail is black above. It is the second-largest marten in the Old World after the Nilgiri marten (Wikipedia, general species account).
In India it lives in the Himalayas and the north-eastern states, including northern West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam. It patrols large ranges, covering 10–20 km in a day and night, and is a diurnal hunter that often works in pairs or small groups. It hunts mostly on the ground, but climbs well and can leap 8–9 m between branches. In the Himalayas it is reported to kill muntjac fawns. It also eats nectar and fruit and so helps to disperse seeds (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)