Marten live across the northern tier of North America, wherever forests are dense and full of hollow and fallen trees, which is where they are found when not looking for prey.
Marten are omnivores, eating rodents and other small mammals but also birds and berries. Mostly nocturnal, the curious marten hops about searching for voles. They chase squirrels and chipmunks through the high branches of trees (the Irish call marten “tree cats”); males will rest in the canopy, often in the clumped branches of a witch’s broom (an abnormal growth caused by rust fungi). Marten are solitary and territorial, except during the summer mating season.
Marten predators include other mammals, eagles, and hawks. Humans have pushed marten and other sylvan species out of southern New England by forest clearing and development. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife categorizes the marten as a “furbearer” and last assessed the statewide population in 1986. Trapping season runs from the end of October through December; each animal pelt is tagged in order to track the population.
Read more at Natural Resources Council of Maine.
Catherine Schmitt 