Nilgiri marten

The Nilgiri marten, Martes gwatkinsii, is the only marten native to southern India, living in the hills of the Nilgiris and parts of the Western Ghats. Thomas Horsfield described it from a skin in the museum of the East India Company, and it is named after the collector Reynolds Gwatkins. It is deep brown from head to rump, with almost reddish forequarters and a bright throat that ranges from yellow to orange, and it is larger than the yellow-throated marten, about 55 to 65 centimetres long from head to vent with a tail of 40 to 45 centimetres and a weight of about 2.1 kilograms. It mainly inhabits shola grasslands and montane rain forests across Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A diurnal and mainly arboreal omnivore, it preys on birds, small mammals including the Malabar giant squirrel, and insects such as cicadas, and it also eats fruit and seeds. With only around a thousand left, it is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.