Lovely marten, SEAK . That striking orange throat and top colours on those darks and ochres with the dorsals are great contrast.

waggler -

If you believe the genetics work that's been done recently, the Admiralty Island marten are a relic from the Pleistocene (due to the non-glaciated refugia) and are indeed Martes caurina. On Baranof and Chichagof, marten were introduced from animals mainly caught in GMU 16 around the Lower Su, the Ivan, and the Theodore Rivers up to Sleeping Lady country, so are "pure" Martes americana. However, I am still in a running argument about the splitting of these two supposed species. Up until 1959, there were two species of marten in North America. At that point, there were "lumped" because of their natural propensity to interbreed and produce fertile offspring (one of the definitions of what constitutes a species). I've looked at a series of cleaned skulls from all over Idaho (supposed M. caurina), all the way up through western Interior Alaska (supposed M. americana), and see a gradual change from the "pure" M. americana down to the "pure" M. caurina, showing about a 400-mile intergrade zone. In my opinion, nothing more than normal intraspecies differences because of habitat and latitude (Bergman's Rule).

Jack

Jack, I was hoping you would include your helpful input !

I was thinking of our former conversations about this a while ago. Fascinating !

I thought of you this whole thread, and when other trappers have posted their marten on my thread , in my hat "quest " subject .

Thank you !

Here is a marten noggin for you, Jack.

Man, Viking! I always loved those old "apple-headed" males. That one looks like a Booner.

Jack

Those are some awesome pics. I love them marten. Wish we had a trapping population. Do the darker phases generally do better at sale? Or the other colors?

The darker pelts are currently in vogue.

So you have a subscription to Vogue ?? That's a first for the trappers I know.

Thanks for all the encouragement on the sale, goal is to pay off my student loan. I owe $2100, hope I do it!

Anyway as to the dark ones being in Vogue, explain this one. So I have 4 left to sell from last year (others sold) Xd-dbn XL graded an I. Not select infortunately. The same color size I made top lot in my others. Why haven’t these sold?