Contribución al conocimiento de la dieta invernal de la marta (Martes martes) en el País Vasco

Abstract

We present the analysis of a sample of 96 Pine Marten (Martes martes) scats found in winter, in a mountain beech forest in the Basque Country (Northern Spain). Small mammals (mainly Apodemus sp., Microtus sp. and Myodes glareolus) comprised 48,2% of ingested biomass, and birds 50,7%, while arthropods remained important regarding frequency of occurrence but not biomass (0,7%). This high importance of birds showed its compensatory role as type of prey during a season with an estimated low abundance of rodents in the study area.