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Marten
Also called: American Sable, Pine Marten.
Images coming soon.
- Length
- 24 inches.
- Description
- Smaller than the fisher, with less bushy tail. Colour, rich brown, somewhat lighter below, throat with a light tawny spot, ears high and pointed.
- Range
- Boreal forests south through the mountains to Pennsylvania.
- Range
- Newfoundland.
- Range
- Northern Labrador.
Martens love best thick old-growth forests of evergreen, where dead trees lean together and stretch along the ground half buried and crumbling.
Here they live among the trees almost like squirrels, racing along old windfalls and up among the branches, to leap over into the next tree-top and so away through the woods; chasing the red squirrels in the pine boughs, and catching them too in spite of all their quickness. Then down to earth again, bounding off on the trail of a hare, eager and excited with the scent of fresh game in their nostrils.
In warm weather they keep more to the swamps and low, moist woods, where the dead leaves lie wet in the hollows.
Although martens kill all sorts of birds and animals indiscriminately, they appear to prefer partridges, rabbits and squirrels, hunting them most persistently. They will follow the trail of a hare, nose to the earth, quartering along its crooked course until their terrified prey starts up before them from its hiding place; then for a little while it is a close hot chase by sight. If the marten fails to seize him in the first few jumps, the hare may outdistance him and go flying away over stumps and logs out of sight among the trees. The marten, however, merely drops his nose to the trail once more and follows it up without a break, perfectly certain of success in the end. Even in deep soft snow the marten is able to chase the hare with success, his feet being broad and well furred, supporting him on the surface, where a mink's or even a weasel's would sink deep.
Like the mink and weasel, martens have little to fear from native enemies; the much larger fisher is said to kill them occasionally, and it is not improbable that the great horned owl now and then manages to pounce on one unawares.
But though they are almost free from the strong musky odour characteristic of the other weasels, very few of the carnivores care to taste their flesh unless driven to it by extreme hunger.
Before the coming of the Europeans they must have multiplied exceedingly in all the northern forests, to the terror and destruction of all kinds of small game. It has been observed, however, that about once in every eight or ten years they almost disappear in a most unaccountable manner from all parts of the region they inhabit.
There is no evidence of disease among them at such times, or that they have migrated in a body, as gray squirrels, hares and lemmings do when they find themselves overcrowded.
The sable hunters all agree, however, that they invariably refuse to be enticed into a trap by bait of any sort just before the periods of scarcity, though commonly unsuspicious and easily taken. Martens prefer to make their nests in holes high up in some old tree, and find the nests of the larger woodpeckers perfectly suited to their needs. Having established themselves in a woodpecker's or squirrel's hole, they like to watch whatever is going on in the woods beneath them, with just their noses poked out into the air, ready to slip back out of sight if danger threatens. Their nests are made of moss and leaves in the bottom of the cavity.
In the mountainous rocky country they often live in crevices among the ledges or a seam in the face of the cliff. They multiply rapidly, the females having half a dozen or more kittens early in the spring.
Although they exhibit much less apprehensiveness in man's presence in the wilderness than the otter, for example, they absolutely refuse to inhabit woods in the vicinity of any regular settlement, disappearing completely at the approach of civilization. While the otter, though quick to abandon his favourite slides and playgrounds if he finds the merest suspicion of a man's tracks near by, only moves to some other point along the stream, and establishes a new landing place, though it may just be on the outskirts of a village. Although martens are carnivorous animals, they are said to be very fond of beechnuts, and I should not be in the least surprised to learn that in the summer they eat berries of various kinds as well, for most of the flesh-eaters make an exception in favour of some sort of vegetable diet, just as almost all rodents like meat for a change.
Varieties of the Pine Marten
Marten. Mustela americana Turton. Description and range as above.
Newfoundland Marten. M. atrata Bangs. Darker brown, almost black; throat patch orange.
Labrador Marten. M. brumalis Bangs. Larger and heavier, colour darker.