Catching a rare glimpse of a marten in a local forest

In the early dawn light, I watched four ruffed grouse looking for something to eat when they flushed. Sneaking across the new eight inches of snow that had fallen during the night, came a sleek brown assassin of the lodgepole pine forest – an American pine marten. It was not the first time seeing them, but it was the first time that I would get a chance to photograph one.

Like most wild animals and birds that live in a harsh winter wonderland, it was looking for an easy meal and it found a bird feeding station. Not only did the feeder attract a potential source of food, but it also provided an early morning snack for it.

Light snow falling in the thick pines made getting enough light to get a picture very difficult. I did everything I could think of to get a few pictures. The marten’s quickness and nervous disposition compounded the problem. It stayed long enough to give me about five minutes to get some pictures before bounding off to find or build a borrow to hide and rest for the day.

The American pine marten is an interesting omnivore that will eat almost anything, talented in so many ways and can be very curious. Prior to this encounter with this marten, I have only seen eight or nine tramping through wilds of Idaho and Wyoming for about 70 years.

It seems like their lives revolve around eating and trying to keep warm during the winter. They usually live a very solitary life (except during their breeding cycle), eating birds, voles, berries, seeds, carrion, frogs and fruit. Their favorite food is probably the red squirrels, commonly called the “pine squirrel” in our local area. To stay warm during the harsh winters, they build snow tunnels and dens under logs and uprooted trees. They are active all night, but dusk and dawn are their favorite times to harvest their meals as that is when their prey are most active.

They love to visit bird feeding sites because of the prey that are attracted to them, and if they are unsuccessful in capturing some prey, they can always steal a bite to eat. In the summer they may even harvest a fish as they are great swimmers.

They hunt mostly on the ground or the snow, but with their very sharp claws, they are good climbers where they can match the red squirrel’s ability to catch them in the treetops. In fact, when they are so inclined, males can travel long distances by jumping from tree to tree as they travel through their two to four mile claimed hunting territory.

Being part of the Mustelidae family, both males and females are equipped with scent glands located near their vents. As the travel, they will place that scent on trees, so that other marten will know that that area is theirs, and they will fiercely defend it. I suspect that other martens had visited this feeding station as I watched it smelling most of the trees as it moved through the forest.

One of the most interesting aspects of the marten’s life is the development of the young. Their breeding season is in the late summer after the kits (baby marten) are born in March or April. The females carry the fertilized eggs from then until February when the eggs are implanted into the uterus wall to develop for the next 28 days. This is called “delayed implantation.”

The males practice polygamy, mating with multiple females that move into their claimed territory. It is unknown if the males are active in the raising of the kits as the females usually give birth in a “natal” den and then move the kits to a “material” den. They will raise the young there for about six weeks before they are abandoned to forage for themselves.

Mature marten’s greatest dangers come from humans via roads, destruction of old growth forests, and trapping while hawks, owls, fox and coyotes take a lot of kits. This last summer I saw three dead martens close together on U.S. Highway 20 in Island Park.

American pine martens are found in most states and Canada that have mature evergreen forests. Central Idaho mountains, Island Park, and the Big Hole Mountains have self-sustaining populations, but they are seldom seen unless one has established a den near your cabin in the woods where they can get a free meal. Hopefully the one I saw this week will not be the last that I have a chance to photograph.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week and can find some time to enjoy a part of the Idaho outdoors.