It inhabits deciduous, mixed, and coniferous woodlands, as well as scrub. Optimal habitat appears to be woodlands with an incomplete canopy and dense understory vegetation. Pine Martens have a predominantly carnivorous diet, consuming voles, mice, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and amphibians. Carrion is a major food source in the winter. Bee nests, mushrooms, and berries are also sometimes eaten. Solitary, but not highly territorial. The home ranges very often overlap partially or even totally. There is delayed implantation after 165–210 days. In the eastern parts of distribution area (Ural Mts) it can hybridise with sympatrically distributed Sable M. zibellina (Heptner et al. 1967).

The Pine Marten is widespread in continental Europe, with the exception of most of Greece, parts of Belgium and the Netherlands (Bright 1999) and of most of Iberia (Munoz et al. 2007). It occurs on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. It was introduced historically to the Balearic Islands of Minorca and Majorca by humans in ancient times (Valenzuela and Alcover 2015), where they have now become established (Powell et al. 2012). It was formerly widespread in the British Isles but is now restricted to Ireland and northern Britain (Birks and Messenger 2010, O’Mahony et al. 2012, Croose et al. 2014). Successfully reintroduced into Wales from Scotland in 2015–2017 (Mathews et al. 2018, Sainsbury et al. 2019) and plans are underway to reintroduce it to several areas in England.

The global distribution extends out of the European region in Asia Minor, northern Iraq and Iran, the Caucasus, and in the Urals and Western Siberia eastward to Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk provinces and Altaiski Krai (Russia) (Monakhov 2022). Altitude ranges from sea level to the timberline – at 2,300 m in the Pyrenees (Palomo and Gisbert 2002) and at 2,200–2,400 m in the Caucasus (Bakeev 1973).

It is listed on Appendix III of the Bern Convention and Annex V of the Habitats Directive, and it occurs in a number of protected areas throughout its range. In The United Kingdom it is listed under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Hunting controls need to be implemented and enforced across its range.