So I've never tried trapping this member of the mustelidae family, but looking into giving it a shot next year. Until then I'm trying to learn more about them and decide how I want to go about it.

First off, I'm hoping some of you out there could explain to me methods used to avoid females. Or if their really is a way. In you tube videos I've watched, the trappers don't seem to do anything different, but most of them seem to prefer not catching the females for the obvious reason that they are needed to replenish/sustain the population. Maybe they're typically not worth as much as well? The following is in Idaho F&G's regulations and is what got me thinking about it:

"Trappers are encouraged to set
marten traps at least 2 feet above the
ground or snow level to reduce the
harvest of female martens."

Can someone explain this reasoning? I realize females are smaller, but they climb trees just as good as males, don't they?

Open to any other things any of you want to discuss about 'Martes americana'.

Thanks.

Well im not sure why they would say females dont clime trees . I have caught many in trees. My experience is using 160s with triggers off set slightly do seem to catch less females. Maybe they sneak past ? Not sure why . When using 120s all marten are caught. I changed so as to not miss as many fisher.

Pm sent

Catching juvenile marten of both sexes is what you want to do when managing marten for maximum sustainability.A lot of juvenile marten wont make it past their first winter,when the carrying capacity of the land is set in late winter.So trapped or not a lot of these animals wont make it.
What you do want to avoid as much as possible are the Adult female marten.Adult marten of both sexes maintain home ranges in core marten habitat most years.There are times when marten abandon home ranges but this is only occasionally due mainly to widespread small mammal crashes which occur periodically or from disturbances such as clearcut logging or fire.
So how do we use this knowledge to minimize the harvest of adult females and keep the harvest of juveniles and adult males high(over 3 to 1)compared to Adult females?
First,set traps on dispersal routes which juvenile marten use when they seek to establish a home range that will sustain them for winter.These dispersal routes are typically timbered drainages running thru old burns,clearcuts,or growth under 50 years,that connect core marten habitat,which where I trap is older coniferous or mixed timber over 50 years regrowth with lots of coarse woody debris on the ground and around 80% overhead cover.Core marten habitat may differ where you are.
These areas produce a good number of juvenile marten earlier in the season.
If you are setting in core habitat later in the season your catch will be mostly adults.Since the home range is around 3 times larger than an adult female,you can exclude some adult females by spreading out your traps further.Instead of the typical 3 or 4 traps to the mile,set 1 per mile.Home range size varies in different core habitats,but regardless the males always have a substantially larger home range encompassing 3 or 4 resident female home ranges.
Another method practiced by native trappers is to stop trapping marten earlier in the season.Trapping later in winter you will catch more adults than juveniles as the juveniles have either dispersed,or been culled naturally or by trapping already.

In order to stay on top of all this it is paramout that you sex and age your catch as the season progresses so you don't hurt your line by taking too many adult females in relation to the juveniles in the harvest.Most trappers will pull sets when there are more than 1 adult female to every 3 or 4 adult males and juveniles in the total harvest for your trapline.

Male marten can be reliably aged thru the temporal muscle coalescence method. Female marten can be reliably aged by looking at the thickness of the fallopian tubes inside the abdomen in the ones where the temporal muscles have not coalesced.