I was just getting ready to skin this Marten and checked his teeth out quickly like I always do, and this one had really worn down teeth.
First time I’ve ever caught or seen a Marten with worn down teeth.

I know some of you guys like to see these kind of pics, so I thought I’d share.

Old marten.

Impressive. Ive never seen one near that worn. Id think about saving the skull as you may never see another like it.

Wow almost nothing there!

Probably a pretty old guy but it isn't always straight forward. A lot depends on the soil types where a critter lives. I have seen a LOT of marten like that where they live on spawned out salmon ....lying in sandy soils on the river bank. The sand wears their teeth down much quicker than you would expect

The skull is pretty much toast after getting smacked by the belisle 160!



Definitely no salmon here lol.
Caught him in a little spruce patch surrounded by a huge area of very young poplar. I think a fire went through there a few years ago.
I liked the color on him and the way he was sitting on the box. As close to a Wolverine I’m gonna get! Lol

Old marten.Not much of his head in the conibear either.

Meth

Nice pic Jurassic,he wasnt gettin enough "nut butter"

Nice post, Jurassic! I sure like looking at those old-timers.

I've cleaned almost 10,000 marten skulls over the years, and have rarely seen the wear shown in your posted image. I agree with white17 on the differential tooth wear when marten are dragging fish across sandbars. Have seen the same back in the late 70s with mink that had high incidence of whitefish in their diet, rather than the "normal" microtines.

Thanks for the post, man!



This was one-year's collection of marten skulls I cleaned for research purposes. This is not photoshopped.

How many there Gulo.about 700?
I have observed severe tooth wear in several species.Marten the odd time and wolf.
More common I see it in blackbears and otters.
I often wonder if these animals are ornery from constant tooth ache?

Holy crap Gulo! That’s a lot of Marten skulls!! Great pic!
Glad you liked the post!

Lol! The squirrels eat the nuts and he ate the squirrels. Maybe too many nuts in his diet lol.

This guy seemed more depressed or embarrassed since he didn't have the equipment to chew through a coyote snare.

Definitely an old geezer of a Marten !!

w