video of a european pine marten in irati forest

These images were recorded in July last year by Kristina montoia warden of Irati (itarinatura) a few meters from the point of information Arrazola, from about 8 feet away, in a pruned beech .

Martens(Martes martes) or Fuinas, as they are called in some parts of Navarre, are small carnivores, very elusive, and they have  night habits .In Europe martens  arrived until the nord of iberian pensinsule, and beech marten(martes foina) is in navarre more mediterranean.We can  to  distingue mainly by the color of the neck .In  the beech marten is white, andn in the marten in Irati yellowish. we have beech martens in Irati forest too, because its location is between different bioclimatic regions.


We cannot seen in the video what  are its eating. The next day, we returned to see if we could find some clue, and we found the small tail of  a baby of a edible dormouse (Glis glis), small gray rodent with a long and bushy tail, very soft.We keep the tail at the point of information of Arrazola and we will show you if you ask for it.

Pruned  trees ,are trees that are cut theirs branches in 10 or 20 years, to avoid  cutting the entire tree. The branches are used to make charcoal or like wood to be used  for heating the house.With  this kind of pruning the truk got a big volume, because  in height could not develop to much.

Many of them have hundreds of years, and most are hollow, with nesttles, food for birds of many kinds, burrows ..

Path of the old pruned beeches(30min.)1-4-2012

At the entrance to Irati by Aezkoa have a short path for the entire family, which runs between pruned beechesin a old meadow.Its  particularly suitable for people who want to do a little walk or for people who have children.Its possible to do with child pushchair.

old pruned beeches in Arrazola(Aezkoa)Navarre.

About woodpeckers

These images were recorded in July 2011 by Cristina Montoya, Irati guard in the valley of Aezkoa(Navarre) and worker of Itarinatura green tourism company.

This is a male white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos sp. Lilfordi) a type of woodpecker is distinguishable from the female by its red head.

He's making a hole in the wood to reach the larvae and  eat.

The highest density of this species in the Iberian peninsula and south of France is in the forest of Irati, with 0.57 couple/100  hectares, followed  of Quinto real(Navarre), with 0'34couple / 100 ha. (Fernandez 1997).

Green woodpecker (Picus viridis)

In Irati forest,apart from white-backed woodpecker , we have several species of woodpeckers; wrynecks (Jynx torquilla), difficult to see from his mimicry, Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis), which is large and yellow-lime green when we seen flying, and quite common, the black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), versatile in their feeding and the largest of them, the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), abundant in the forests Navarre, and the Middle spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos medius) very rare.
Until few days ago,we have been hearing his drumming on logs,  theirs songs, and quite often, if you know where to look, watching some of them eating and even making nests, always being very respectfull as any other species, animal as a vegetable.