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