Wildlife

Marten vary in color from pale yellow to chocolate brown. Their coats are long and beautiful, leading to their nickname: american sable. A streak of lighter fur usually runs from the throat onto the chest. They have a fox-like face with broad rounded ears and a long bushy tail. Adult male martens are from 10 to 25 inches long, with an additional 8 inch tail, and weigh up to 3 pounds. Females are substantially smaller.

Martens are mostly nocturnal and spend a great deal of their time in trees. They prey mainly on red squirrels and other small mammals, but will vary their diet with snowshoe hares, insects, birds, eggs, fruit, and nuts.

Breeding usually occurs July to August with young born in April. Typical litter size is two to four, and the newborns are six inches long, weighing only one ounce. They develop slowly and are about half of adult size by mid-July. By fall the young are independent and leave their mother to become solitary hunters.

Resources:

Burt, William H. and Richard P. Grossenheider. 1980. Peterson field guide to mammals. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston Massachusetts.

Alaska Geographic Society. 1996. Mammals of Alaska: a comprehensive field guide from the publishers of Alaska geographic. The Alaska Geographic Society. Anchorage Alaska.

For more information, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's wildlife notebook pages.