Through the years, I've seen tens of thousands of marten. The vast majority of these were taken by other trappers. I used to get a handful each year that had extra-large throat patches or white toes; sometimes even an entire white foot. I took these two photos many years ago of marten that were showed to me by other interior Alaska trappers; they were not my harvests. Just thought some out there would be interested.

Amazing colors!

Cool looking animal, I saw white footed fox years ago, about 1-3 in a hundred would have some white on feet, instead of black,

I have caught a few with orange toes and tail tip,and a few canarys,unfortunately no pics.
That first one is certainly unique.

They are pretty cool looking. I've always wanted to trap marten.

Gulo, some friends of mine used to catch a fair number of marten colored like the first picture in the palisades area of the snake river range. remember one even having the orange streaked in his back,in fifty,they might have 4 or 5 that had the orange or yellow all over the belly and some on the legs and feet.

Those are some neat pictures. Thanks for sharing Gulo!

Awesome Catches!

Inbreeding?

The Seneca white deer are a rare herd of deer living within the confines of the former Seneca Army Depot in Seneca County, New York. When the 10,600-acre (43 km2) depot was created in 1941, a 24-mile (39 km) fence was erected around its perimeter, isolating a small herd of white-tailed deer, some of which had white coats. These deer are not albino, but instead carry a set of recessive genes for all-white coats. The isolation of the herd causes high levels of inbreeding.

In the 1950s, the depot commander forbade GIs from shooting any white deer. The deer population has since grown to about 700 head, approximately 300 of which are white, making it the largest herd of white deer in the world.


I also saw this with gray squirrels in an isolated population.

Interesting ebsurveyor. Thanks for the tale of the deer situation. I don't suspect this is the case with the two marten pictured, however, as they are certainly not isolated and populations from which they came are relatively good. Rather, I'd suspect just genetic anomalies amongst thousands of 'normals'.

I caught a silver Marten last year.

This one was taken two years ago by a friend here in southeast Alaska.

Jack; since marten litters are so small...would you suspect an anomaly such as your top picture would also occur in litter mate/s ? Or just like foxes ...would you see all color phases in the same litter?

Wondering because of the induced ovulation in marten possibly gives litter mates different dads ???

Just love those yellow and orange colours, Jack!

What a fascinating subject ,is the marten clan, worldwide....one that I'm just scratching the surface in learning.

What a grand hat that top one would make, with the tie tassels in that gorgeous bright yellow for contrast.

Thank you for the share. See you on the surface

Billy "white shoes" Johnson marten are fairly common here. Probably 2 or 3 percent a year. It is unclear if this is because I'm inbred.

NO COMMENT! LOL.

How'd your season go Dirt? Hope you had a good one.

AV. That silver is not like anything I've seen previously. Cool. The real white-headed ones that are orange (the canaries) are quite common in the Minchumina area, and I've run into them elsewhere from time to time.

Dirt. I'm guessing that the white-toed/white-footed marten are probably about 5% in the western interior (just a guess). Interesting that you're seeing about the same.

White17. I'm guessing that the 2 anomalies pictured above were probably cross-over or some equally obscure genetic make-up, and would further venture to guess they were the only ones in the litters to display. Again, just guessing.

Gulo, I stupidly pelted the silver out for auction. Only later did I realize my mistake.

Am I the only guy whose marten have hair mites?

Hippie I was sick for about three weeks and could barely stumble to sets. That slowed me down a little. Still got in a 5 mile stagger when I ran out of gas on a particularly mushy day. I was going pretty slow at the end, more resting than snowshoeing.

We once made a blaze scarf. Just once.

Here's an interesting white-footed, white-collared marten.



Jack