The Beech Marten
Martes foina

It has a large white marking on the breast and at the throat, a shaggy coat and furless foot pads.
Two particular features are its pointy ears and bushy tail.
It lives in deciduous forests but also hilly open and rocky areas and in the Alps can even live at heights of 2400 metres.
It is often found near areas of human settlement where it can easily find its prey.
It is mainly a solitary animal but during the reproductive season it lives in small groups which break up at the end of the mating season.
It often seeks out houses in the country settling into lofts, roofs, barns and granaries. Sometimes it takes shelter in tree cavities, rocks and blackberry bushes.
It moves mainly at twilight and nightime to hunt mice, rabbits and dormice, but it also feeds on insects, amphibians, wild fruits and berries.
It also makes its way into chicken coops and rabbit hutches and nearly always kills all the animals it finds.
The best daytime shelters are continuously used and are usually all kinds of ravines which guarantee sufficient shelter and protection against likely predators.
The belief that the Beech Marten only drinks the blood of its victims is actually false, whereas it is true that it usually kills all the animals in a chicken coop. This behaviour is known as surplus killing, in which the fear of the prey unleashes a strong predatory instinct in the carnivore which does not depend on its actual appetite and ends only with the death or escape (which is impossible in a coop) of the last animal.