- Every Tuesday, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.
Camera traps bring you closer to the secretive natural world and are an important conservation tool to study wildlife. This week we’re meeting the largest species of martens in Asia.
Yellow-throated martens are medium-sized carnivores and fearless animals that have few natural predators due to their powerful build, agile nature and the strong-smelling liquid that they secret as a defense mechanism. They live in temperate and tropical forests from sea-level to 4,150m and can be found throughout the Himalayas, as far north as the Chinese-Russian border and as far south as Indonesia. The yellow-throated marten mainly eats small mammals, birds and insects, but they will also forage for fruits and nectar in trees and on the ground, which makes them an important seed disperser. Even though they usually prefer small mammals like mice and rats, they have been reported to kill cats, smaller marten species, and even panda cubs. Watch the video to learn more about this species!
Special thanks to Mr Jonathan Moore for sharing his camera trap footage. Moore’s research focuses primarily on animal-plant interactions. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube channel and hit the bell icon to make sure you never miss an episode of Candid Animal Cam!
Romi Castagnino is Mongabay’s bilingual writer. Find her on Twitter and Instagram: @romi_castagnino