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Many methods have been devised to estimate the density of pine martens, including trapping, snow tracking and telemetry. An evaluation of the use of snow track measurements to distinguish individual pine martens in the lowland forests of eastern Poland is presented. Results suggests that snow track measurements do not always recognise individual pine martens and population estimates based on this method may be biased. However, track measurement can complement other measuring techniques.

Variation in 23 measurements of skulls of Martes martes from 15 populations covering most of the range of distribution in Europe indicates the existence of a north-south gradient of increasing skull size. Skulls of M. foina from 13 populations increase in size from west to Geographic variation in sexual dimorphism is not significant in the two species. Arrangement of samples by discriminant analysis, which was used to examine overall phenetic variation, reflects the geographic origin of the samples. Multiple regression of morphologic and climatic principal components shows a strong relationship between skull width and climate, especially in M. foina. Patterns of variation in sympatric and allopatric samples and variation in relative size between species within their area of sympatry suggest no character displacement between species. Phylogenetic and ecologic differences appear to be the main reasons for distinct patterns of geographic variation found in the two species, despite their apparent morphologic similarities. Key words: Martes, geographic variation, Europe, The distribution range of Martes martes in Europe show a uniform increase in skull size from north to south, and the size variation of M. foina follows an east-west trend of size decrease. Variability in M. foina is larger than that found in M. martes. Morphologic comparison between species in sympatric and allopatric samples show that there is no character displacement between species. Phylogenetic and ecologic differences appear to be the main reasons for distinct patterns of geographic variation found in the two species despite their strong morphologic similarities.