How do you tell between a polecat and a pine marten?

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I took the Airnimal to Basel last week and got the chance to ride up the Hochblauen - the highest hill visible from the airport, albeit in the Black Forest in Germany.  On the descent a creature crossed the road in front of me, a large member of the weasel family, so through elimination it was either a polecat or a pine marten, but I've no idea which it actually was.  Can anyone help?

[Wowbagger]

Polecats are ferrets. Short-legged and about double the size of a rat.

I have fleetingly seen a pine marten. They are more like the size of a small cat.

[citoyen]

You can't wash your hands in a polecat but a pine marten is weasily recognised.

Er... IGMC

[fuaran]

Yes, pine martens are pretty big, they have long bushy tail. Also different in the way they move. Pine martens have longer legs, so more bounding up and down. Polecats would keep closer to the ground.

Pine marten are kind of reddish brown, and have a pale cream bib on the front.
Whereas polecats are usually more a dark brown, almost black. Though maybe not very obvious difference, depending on lighting.

Or could be American mink or Beech martens in Germany?

[T42]

Yes, pine martens are pretty big, they have long bushy tail. Also different in the way they move. Pine martens have longer legs, so more bounding up and down. Polecats would keep closer to the ground.

A pine marten crossed the road ahead of me on a ride last year, with a wonderful springy, undulating gait like nothing I've ever seen before, except maybe in a Slinky. It completely left the ground at times.  I'd love to see that again. Impressively large.

Around 20 years ago a polecat killed all our neighbour's chickens then turned up dead in the chicken-run a couple of mornings later. They weren't protected back then - I'm not even sure they are now.

[Kathy]

Polecats are ferrets. Short-legged and about double the size of a rat.

Polecats aren't ferrets, any more than wolves are dogs. Ferrets have been domesticated for thousands of years; polecats haven't.

[T42]

Wiki gives the ferret as a subspecies of polecat.

[jsabine]

Polecats ... about double the size of a rat.
[...]
pine marten ... more like the size of a small cat.

And given that I've always thought of rats as being about half the size of a small cat, how does this help us to distinguish between them?

[andrew_s]

size-wise, beech marten > pine marten > polecat, but there's not enough in it to rely on.

polecats have a white face with a black band across the eyes and a blackish chest
pine martens have a dark face and yellowish chest patch
beech martens have a dark face and a white chest patch

[Bledlow]

I took the Airnimal to Basel last week and got the chance to ride up the Hochblauen - the highest hill visible from the airport, albeit in the Black Forest in Germany.  On the descent a creature crossed the road in front of me, a large member of the weasel family, so through elimination it was either a polecat or a pine marten, but I've no idea which it actually was.  Can anyone help?

Marder -


Iltis -


Pointy nose, sticky-up ears, creamy/yellowish chest = marder (marten).
Stubby nose & ears, colouring as in photo = iltis (polecat). Like a non-white ferret, ferrets being a domesticated variety.
Note that polecats & ferrets breed together if they get a chance, as do polecats & European mink if they're brought together. All one species, really, while martens are definitely separate.

[Mr Larrington]

Marder:



Iltis:



HTH HAND

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Size of tail and gait, plus territory - high wooded hills - leads me to the conclusion it was a pine marten.  Thanks all.