The soles of its feet are furred. This animal prefers dense, mixed deciduous or mature coniferous forests. Martens use ground burrows, rock piles and crevices, hollow trees, stumps, downfalls and brush, which provide refuge and winter access to sub-snow vegetation galleries and rodent prey. Peak periods of activity are dawn and dusk in summer, and during the day in winter. Martens are active both on the ground and in trees, but are rarely seen, even where fairly common.
Habitat selection depends on abundance of available prey.
Martens are opportunistic feeders on many items, including red-backed voles, squirrels, chipmunks, shrews, hares, carrion and occasionally insects, berries and birds. The marten breeding period is from late summer to early fall. Males sexually mature at 1 year, females at 1-2 years. Males apparently are not directly involved in rearing young, although their territorial defense may indirectly help the female in providing for the young. The marten occurs throughout Canada and Alaska, south through the Rockies, in the Cascades and Pacific Coast mountain ranges, in the northern Great Lakes region and in northern New England.