A few years ago my son and I went with a fur buyer friend to a Seattle Fur Harvesters auction.My son admired the orange Marten skins.I assume these Marten were lotted together for color.Are there certain sections of Alaska that have this color or are they random caught?There were not many lots compared to the brown colors so I think they are fairly scarce?Do they come from other regions of the US,Canada also?

Only caught 3 true canary marten in my life out of thousands of marten.Others have caught some also.Its a genetic mutation like a silver fox.Dont know if they are more prevalent in any one locale.Marten are fairly genetically homogenous throughout their entire range because of their habit of dispersing extremely long distances despite their small size.Lynx are the same in this respect.
Therese Demers the top marten grader for both FHA and NAFA told us that there are about 30 skins come in every year out of the tens of thousands of marten overall.
They are lotted together separately and very few in that lot of canaries are the same colour.Some are paler and some are orangy but never two identical.
I made a hat out of one I caught once.
Our fur pick up guy Leon Lecours from Hearst had a full canary marten hat.

Unfortunately orange is common here

Boco-thanks for the reply.That tells me that they do come from others places other than Alaska.

DIRT:Unfortunately orange is common here.

Why do you say Unfortunately ? The canary bring a premium price.I am not talking partial orange with brown but full on orange

I don't remember how many lots of ten that were at the auction,But it was like 6 max.I do know they were all orange. No other colors other than some white on the skins.

The canary marten have brought some high prices,when more than one buyer wanted them for some specialty market.But this is not the norm for them because they cannot be matched with each other very well.
The best market by far for canary marten is the taxi market.That is where I sold mine,except the one in the hat because it had been partially cannibalized by another marten.

I use to average one every two years before the lumber company clearcut most of my trapline. Was always interesting to catch one.

The very odd one occurs this far to the northeast too.

The very odd one occurs this far to the northeast too.

Thanks for posting.I understand much better now.I assumed the canary were from a certain area or region and not random caught.I was looking at Ryan's thread and noticed a picture of a mostly orange marten he recently caught so it made me think about the canary.

Nice hat Boco.Thanks for posting your response.

It's interesting you should mention that particular Fur Harvesters sale. I took some pictures of those canary lots.

Now that's something right there!

Pretty.Never seen one here in Maine.

Orange

Extra Pales: The guard hairs vary from light brown in the midline to Orange on the flanks. The yellowish orange band in the underfur is wider and lighter than it is in Pale pelts. The pelt has an overall orange appearance.

They pay the least normally and the last few years they have not been selling either.

Hope I answered your question.

Dirt-Do the martin you are mentioning look like the ones in the pictures above.From your description I think they may be different?
The canary martin I am referring to is in the pictures above?I am trying to find out if the canary is found in certain places or random caught as the posters from Canada have said.

They look like waggler's bottom picture. They have a dorsel stripe. Canaries are more yellowish orange like a canary. Yes they are different.

Dirt-I understand what you are talking about now.Thank you for helping me understand.Do you ever catch ones like in picture #2.The ones you catch certainly are very close to the color except the brown.

Some years pl and xp marten(not canary) bring a high price.Depends on fashon dictates.Some years the brown and lt browns bring higher prices.Historically the dk-xd have brought the premium prices-but not always.
The worst marten price wise is what they call the red hips.They are grey from the head down to the shoulders-darker in the middle and distinct red in the hips.
They do not take dye uniformly thus the poor price.

I catch some yellow marten.

A guy I know caught 3 one season, in this general area. All 3 were large males. I bought one from him for a lifesize.
While the taxi work is only "ok", the animal itself is pretty cool.

I caught one 16 years ago it mounted and at our local sporting good store it was a female last January 24 I saw another one looked bigger must be a male it was within 3/8 of a mile where I caught the first one here on the shores of Lake of the Woods a friend of mine is going to try to catch it in a few weeks when our season starts.I showed him where the location is hope he can catch it,he’ll mount it if he catches it if it’s still around hope so.

Fall 1979 or Jan. 1980, trapping marten around the mouth, lower Nowitna R. marten were exceptionally thick. Caught one canary. I think it was a full canary. Trapping that general area until 1991 never caught another. Never heard of anyone else catching one either.
I think they are mostly a random occurrence, like albinism.

That is interesting about catching more than one of them in the same area.So that would mean there is not just one born like an albino but they must carry some genetic trait that they are passing a long? That is what I was thinking but hard to explain the random ones caught other than they are more in that area but scarce.But maybe its a combination of both.

This is the one I had mounted.

There is a pelt at our local ADFG office from one taken in the interior maybe 20 years ago that is much lighter, almost a cream color.

I righted that mount for you AV.

Thank you.

Here is a lot of marten I bought last year at Fur Harvesters, all listed as canaries, so you can see the variation....also bought all the canaries this year but don't have them yet,
George Brady
Cascade Biological Supply

Only 2 there would I call canaries. Bet I've caught around 500 marten over the years that look like the bottom one.

yes, that is why I showed the picture; there is a lot of variation in them. I know the grader and he bases it, i think on the amount of yellow in the underfur or something like that. Anyway, you can see for yourself what a lot looks like....

Canary: These pelts have a pale orange appearance. The underfur is gray only at the bottom of the hairs. The middle band of underfur is white and the tips are yellowish orange. The guard hairs are orange in the midline and yellowish orange on the flanks. Canary pelts are rare.

I was thinking the same.

None of those are canary marten.

I agree, Boco. Maybe #3, in the right light.

Who are we to question professional Canadian fur graders?

The FHA marten grader is an American I believe.
You know what a canary marten is dirt-you quoted it from the Canadian fur bible.

Inter-nut grading is always difficult, er internet that is.
Canary's all get put aside in a separate pile, then the decision of what to make in a bundle. At least when I worked on the grading floor.
mind me asking Washfurbuyer what was the hammer price? ( not with your shipping/ handling charges) but the price trapper got.

When you have 60-70,000 it is a lot easier to pull that 10-12 yellow pelws out

Waggler picture #1,#2 show what the canary look like.

Here's one from Facebook

Yes I do. I'm with you guys. Those are mostly Pales / Xpales. IMHO

True Albino.Nice.Thanks for sharing it.

No albino black eyes it has faded a little over the last 15 or 16 years

They are not red eyes cause the Taxidermy guy probably did not have any when he was doing it up.
Did Minn even have a season on them at that time ?

Yes there was a season and the taxidermist did it right it had regular eyes it has faded the backend was yellow with a orange tail saw one in the same location after the season had closed last year hopefully my buddy can catch it pretty sure the one I saw last January 24 th was a male

Never seen an albino but the details now explain the photo.

Here’s a better picture before it faded

I see now.Its a canary then.I would like to see a true albino if they exist.Maybe buco would have one?

Does anyone still have the picture of the pure white wolverine?
I lost it in a computer crash several years ago.

Here is Le creame de Le crop I caught last season. A good taxidermist put together,he has yet to create the base. Good payday on this guy.

I hope one day to catch some marten of unique coloration, but so far just normal ones are all I've caught.

Yes

That’s a beauty rosscoak.

That's a very interesting variation.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the odd marten pelt at our local adfg office. Unfortunately, it is in a locked case, and couldn't find anyone with a key, so best I could do.

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This the one

Yup.