# Landscape-related differences in diet, food supply and distribution pattern of the pine marten, Martes martes in the transitional mixed forest of northern Belarus

> Same forest zone, different soil, very different pine martens. Over twenty winters of track counts, snowtracking and more than 1200 scats in northern Belarus showed that martens on rich clay soils lived at about six times the density of those on poor sandy soils, where they turned to ungulate carrion in winter and berries in summer. In both places, the number of bank voles in autumn set how many martens there were by late winter.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2005-sidorovich-krasko-landscape-related-differences-diet/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Vadim E. Sidorovich, Dmitry A. Krasko and Alexey A. Dyman
- **Year published:** 2005
- **Journal or source:** Folia Zoologica
- **Full citation:** Sidorovich, V. E., Krasko, D. A. and Dyman, A. A. 2005. Landscape-related differences in diet, food supply and distribution pattern of the pine marten, Martes martes in the transitional mixed forest of northern Belarus. Folia Zoologica 54(1–2): 39–52.
- **Access status:** Hosted (freely available elsewhere)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2005_Sidorovich_and_Krasko_etal_landscape-related-differences-in-diet-food-supply-and-distribution-pattern-of-the-pine-marten.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > Pine marten
- **Region:** Europe > Belarus
- **Tracking:** Scat; Snow tracks; Track counts; Tracking; Tracks; Tracks and signs identification; Trailing
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Daily travel distance; Feeding; Habitat selection; Predation; Scavenging
- **Methods and technology:** Population estimation; Population trends; Radio telemetry
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not reported
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 2005

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: pine marten (Martes martes). Food found in scats: insects (mainly beetles), amphibians, reptiles (mainly lizards), mole, hedgehogs, shrews (soricids), bank vole, Apodemus mice, Microtus voles, water voles and other rodents, red squirrel, hares, muskrat, carrion of mammals (wild ungulates, beaver and others), small, medium and large birds, bird eggs, mountain ash berries, cranberries, blueberries, other berries, apples, herbs, and honey and other bee material. Prey supply monitored: small mammals (bank vole, Apodemus, Microtus voles, shrews), hares, wild ungulates and overwintering perching birds. Also mentioned: raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), in an earlier study by the same group.
- **Location and habitat:** Northern Belarus, transitional mixed (coniferous and small-leaved deciduous) forest between the boreal and the southern deciduous forest zones. Two study areas in Vitebsk region: Gorodok district, upper Lovat river (about 300 km²; the “clay” area, rich soils, spruce, mixed deciduous and black alder forest, about 51% of the landscape); and Polotsk district (about 250 km²; the “sandy” area, barren dry soils, dominated by pine stands on dry land and pine bogs, with clay only in the valleys of glacial lakes and rivers). Habitats include spruce forest, dry pine stands, pine bogs, small-leaved deciduous woods, black alder swamps, forest edges next to open grassland, stream banks and lake shores, clearcuts, dry meadows in glades and grassy marshes.
- **Topics:** diet composition; seasonal diet (warm season April to October, cold season November to March); food supply and carrying capacity; soil and landscape effects; carrion use in winter; berry eating; prey selection (no selection among rodent species); food niche breadth and diet overlap; habitat selection; population density and between-year dynamics; bank vole abundance driving marten numbers; generalist predator and gatherer.
- **Statistics or models:** Percentage of occurrence (%OC) and percentage of biomass consumed () from scats, using digestibility coefficients; Levins’ niche breadth index (B); Pianka’s diet overlap index; Ivlev’s selectivity index as modified by Jacobs (D) for habitats and rodents; Spearman rank correlation; t-test; G-test for homogeneity of percentages; trail counts converted to density with Priklonsky’s formula, adapted with daily movement distances from snowtracking and radiotracking; coefficient of variation for between-year changes in abundance. Inconsistencies in the paper: (1) the text says insects, amphibians, reptiles, carrion and honey made up 7.9 of the warm-season diet in the “clay” area, but Table 3 adds up to 13.6% (7.9% without carrion); (2) the text gives berries as 37.8 of the warm-season diet in the “sandy” area, but the berry rows in Table 3 add up to 35.8%; (3) the text gives rodents and other mammals as 30.8 there, but Table 3 adds up to 31.8%; (4) the text compares 79% pine woodland in the “sandy” area (woodland column of Table 1) with 8% in the “clay” area (the whole-area column; the woodland column gives 15%); (5) one G-test is given as G=8.7, P<0.1, probably meant to be P<0.01; (6) the Table 4 caption says “during the cold season”, but part B also covers the warm season.
- **Data type:** New field data. Scats collected 1995 to 2001 in the “clay” area and 1995 to 1999 in the “sandy” area; snap trapping of small mammals (about 21,000 trap nights; Table 2 covers 1996 to 2001); radiotracking May 1996 to February 2001 (“clay” area only); winter trail counts 1984 to 2004 (“clay” area, twenty winters) and 1997 to 2004 (“sandy” area, seven winters); habitat selection data in Table 4 from 1998 to 2001; landscape structure surveyed in 2000 on about 217 km of routes.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

The researchers compared pine martens in two areas of natural forest in northern Belarus that differ mainly in their soil. In the Gorodok “clay” area, rich soils support varied, productive forest with plenty of prey. In the Polotsk “sandy” area, poor dry soils carry mostly pine forest with sparse ground plants, and richer habitats are found only along the valleys of glacial lakes and rivers. They asked how diet, numbers and distribution of pine martens differ with the food on offer, between landscapes and between seasons.

- Diet. They analysed 1222 pine marten scats, mostly found on marten tracks or at known latrines, collected over seven years (1995 to 2001) in the “clay” area and five years (1995 to 1999) in the “sandy” area. They identified 3095 prey items and other foods from teeth, hair, feathers, bones, scales, insect remains and plant material.

- Food supply. They snap-trapped small mammals in the main habitats (about 21,000 trap nights), counted hare and wild ungulate trails in the snow, and counted overwintering perching birds along set routes.

- Habitat use. They radio-collared seven pine martens in the “clay” area (7549 locations between May 1996 and February 2001), and in both areas followed marten trails in the snow, measuring how much of each trail ran through each habitat.

- Numbers. Twice each winter, early and late, they counted marten trails crossing standard routes in the snow: twenty winters (1984 to 2004) in the “clay” area and seven (1997 to 2004) in the “sandy” area. They turned the counts into densities with Priklonsky’s formula, adjusted with daily travel distances measured by snowtracking and radiotracking.

### 2. What they found

Food supply

- The bank vole was the most common small mammal in both areas (70% and 82% of the small mammal community in autumn). Small mammals were about ten times more abundant in the “clay” area (27.1 versus 2.8 per 100 trap nights).

- Small perching birds were 3 times, hares 11 times and wild ungulates 14 times more abundant in the “clay” area.

- In the “sandy” area, prey was concentrated along streams and glacial lakes; in the “clay” area it was spread much more evenly.

- Bank vole numbers changed with the seasons but showed no cycles of outbreaks and crashes.

Diet

- “Clay” area, warm season: a varied diet, mostly mammals (47.7% of biomass eaten), especially bank voles (27.5%), with birds (25.1%) and berries and other plant food (13.6%). Shrews were common but rarely eaten.

- “Clay” area, cold season: similar, but carrion rose about fourfold (to 21.6% of biomass) and birds fell.

- “Sandy” area, warm season: mostly berries (37.8% of biomass in the text, with blueberries 24.0%) and rodents (23.5%), with more insects and reptiles than in the “clay” area. The diet was narrower.

- “Sandy” area, cold season: dominated by mammal carrion (61.2% of biomass), about 84% of it from wild ungulate carcasses. The diet was very narrow.

- Pine martens showed no preference for any rodent species; they ate them in proportion to what was available.

Numbers

- Early in winter, an average of 7.6 marten trails per km per day crossed the routes in the “clay” area, against 0.5 in the “sandy” area. This means about 7.1 pine martens per 10 km² of woodland in the “clay” area (5 to 11 between years) and 1.2 in the “sandy” area (0 to 6).

- Numbers varied much more from year to year in the “sandy” area, and the two areas did not rise and fall together.

- In both areas, late-winter marten numbers were closely linked to bank vole numbers the previous autumn. In the “sandy” area they were also linked to wild ungulate numbers.

Habitat use

- Pine martens mostly used forest (70.0% to 76.5% of activity), favouring spruce and mixed spruce forest over 60 years old, forest edges next to open ground, and stream banks and lake shores.

- They largely avoided recent clearcuts and pine bogs, and mostly used black alder swamps, dry pine woods, dry meadows and grassy marshes less than their availability.

- In the “clay” area, their habitat use matched the make-up of the woodland. In the “sandy” area it did not: there they lived mainly in the valleys of lakes, rivers and brooks.

- In the warm season they used older clearcuts with regrowth four times more, and swampy areas less, than in winter.

### 3. What they concluded

- In this transitional forest the pine marten is a generalist. They hunt rodents, birds and other prey of suitable size, and also gather fruit (mostly berries) and scavenge ungulate carrion.

- In the poor woodland on sand they specialise: on carrion in the cold season and on berries in the warm season.

- The richer food supply on clay supports about six times more pine martens, spread fairly evenly through the woodland. On sand they live mainly in the valleys.

- Autumn bank vole numbers drive pine marten numbers through the winter. Where prey is scarce, wild ungulate carrion is also crucial to winter survival, shaping numbers in late winter just before the breeding season.

- Compared with Białowieża Forest (Poland and Belarus), martens in northern Belarus ate few Microtus voles, probably because these voles are scarce in the forest here and martens avoid foraging in open habitats.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

Tracking was central to this study:

- Scat collection: most scats were found on pine marten tracks or at known latrines.

- Snowtracking (trailing): in both areas the researchers followed marten trails in the snow and recorded the length of trail in each habitat (109 km of trails from 22 animals in the “clay” area, 88 km from 17 animals in the “sandy” area). Snowtracking, combined with radiotracking, also gave the daily travel distances needed to estimate density.

- Track counts: marten trails crossing standard routes, counted twice each winter for up to twenty winters, gave the abundance index (trails per km per day since the last snowfall). Hare and wild ungulate trails were counted the same way to measure food supply.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. The paper does not say who collected scats, followed trails or counted tracks, or how their identifications were checked. The diet, habitat and density results all rest on correct identification of pine marten tracks and scats.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Radio collars (Biotrack Ltd.) and receivers (Telonics Inc.); martens caught in wooden box traps.

- Microscopic identification of hair in scats, and biomass estimates using digestibility coefficients.

- Snap trapping to measure small mammal supply.

- Priklonsky’s formula to convert winter trail counts into densities, adjusted for local snow conditions.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The study shows how winter trail counts kept up over many years (twenty winters here) can follow a predator’s population and link it to their food supply.

- Snowtracking added to radiotracking: it gave habitat use in the “sandy” area, where no martens were collared, and daily travel distances for the density formula.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Landscape-related differences in diet, food supply and distribution pattern of the pine marten, Martes martes in the transitional mixed forest of northern Belarus (Sidorovich and Krasko et al., 2005). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2005-sidorovich-krasko-landscape-related-differences-diet/