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.