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Fat Marten. #7447962
01/01/22 05:16 PM
01/01/22 05:16 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,261
james bay frontierOnt.
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Boco Offline OP
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james bay frontierOnt.
Uncommon for marten to carry that much fat.
Looks like they are feeding on grouse-high population of grouse.Some hair in the gut too-looked to be flying squirrel,but not definitive.No shortage of flyers in certain areas.
Juvenile female.

[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]


Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448012
01/01/22 05:44 PM
01/01/22 05:44 PM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,124
McGrath, AK
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white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
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McGrath, AK
Yeah I have seen a few like that. Especially if they have been hanging around a kill.

From the evidence I would agree about the grouse diet.


Mean As Nails
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448246
01/01/22 08:43 PM
01/01/22 08:43 PM
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 785
Labrador, Canada
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crosspatch Offline
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Labrador, Canada
I don't know but around here people say marten fat like that when they have been hitting the berries xtra hard when meat food scarce. Carbs make you fat. Same idea about fat fox too.


Last edited by crosspatch; 01/01/22 08:44 PM.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448255
01/01/22 08:52 PM
01/01/22 08:52 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,261
james bay frontierOnt.
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Boco Offline OP
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james bay frontierOnt.
Thats why I opened his gut-wanted to see if he was eating on a kill(moose) or beaver from one of my bait dump.
besides the fat his whole intestinal tract was full.It was not caught near a baitpile,and I normally catch all marten that visit a baitpile at the baitpile in a nearby box.


Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448373
01/01/22 10:26 PM
01/01/22 10:26 PM
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 785
Labrador, Canada
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crosspatch Offline
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Labrador, Canada
Should say I don't mean hitting the berries now as might be hard but in the fall and they then just pack on the fat is the thought on it. Can not prove or disprove. People talk about marten being round like stove pipes - the kind of 4" stove pipes you use in a wall tent.

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448388
01/01/22 10:41 PM
01/01/22 10:41 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,261
james bay frontierOnt.
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Boco Offline OP
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james bay frontierOnt.
Yea,Frank, I guess they can put on the fat on a diet of berries,but what I understand about marten is they need to eat steady especially in the cold.They have a high metabolism.They will burn up stored fat quickly.I think they need a steady supply of feed to maintain any fat they accumulate.
There was a lot of fat inside the body cavity on that Marten too.When I seen it was a female I was a bit bummed figured it was an adult,but when I looked at the skull,It looked to be a juvenile.I confirmed that with a look at the fallopian tubes-very thin and threadlike.

Last edited by Boco; 01/01/22 10:43 PM.

Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448445
01/02/22 12:21 AM
01/02/22 12:21 AM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 5,514
juneau, alaska
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alaska viking Offline
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Posts: 5,514
juneau, alaska
The marten I have taken with body fat have almost always been making a living off my bait piles, or wolverine cubbies.
Doesn't seem to take long for them to put on fat, and probably not long to burn it off.


Made it almost 3 years without censor!

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448478
01/02/22 01:20 AM
01/02/22 01:20 AM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,261
james bay frontierOnt.
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Boco Offline OP
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james bay frontierOnt.
Do you open them up to check AV?Whenever I get an abnormally fat animal I always open it up to see what i can identify.Pure meat with no hair indicates to me that they are living on a pile of skinned carcasses.Voles are easy to identify from the tiny bone fragments,etc.
I was not really surprised when I found this one was eating grouse-we have been polluted with grouse-spruce and ruffed for at least 6 or 7 years now.
Probably not their preferred food,I think once marten get on the grouse they take them when they roost at night.I know marten will take grouse scraps readily as bait in the fall as long as the weather isnt too cold,and they can smell it.When it gets very cold grouse scrap is a poor bait.
I dont use grouse scrap in baitpiles(dont have enough of it for that),but do use it in boxes if I am trapping marten in the fall.
I have caught marten living in jackpot baitpiles that were very fat.It is a given they will wind up in a trap,they dont go far from a large bait,often living in a hole right in the baitpile.

Last edited by Boco; 01/02/22 01:24 AM.

Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448754
01/02/22 12:04 PM
01/02/22 12:04 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 5,514
juneau, alaska
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alaska viking Offline
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juneau, alaska
I did stomach exams for a number of years, mostly looking for parasitic worms.


Made it almost 3 years without censor!

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448840
01/02/22 01:18 PM
01/02/22 01:18 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,487
Moved to Fbks, Ak.
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martentrapper Offline
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Moved to Fbks, Ak.
Caught a few fatties over the years. Never looked into what they were eating. Mostly a foothold user so tummies were mostly empty when I collected the animal.

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7448882
01/02/22 01:55 PM
01/02/22 01:55 PM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,124
McGrath, AK
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white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
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McGrath, AK
I think it is more usual to find marten like that caught in body grip type traps. In a foot hold they can burn up fat like that in 24 hours........according to the literature I have read. As Mike points out most foot caught marten will be empty and as Boco mentions they need to keep eating to maintain the status quo due to high metabolic rate. Somewhere I have read that they need to eat the equivalent of 2-3voles per 24 hrs just to maintain what they have.


Mean As Nails
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7449474
01/03/22 03:40 AM
01/03/22 03:40 AM
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 811
Interior Alaska
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30/06 Offline
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Interior Alaska
Never caught one anywhere near that fat. The biggest, fattest male we ever caught though, was in Late December and stuffed with shriveled blueberries. Belilse 120.

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7449743
01/03/22 10:54 AM
01/03/22 10:54 AM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,114
Manitoba
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Northof50 Offline
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Manitoba
The importance of individual weighing each marten that I have found. Once you find the zone most of the marten are in that you are trapping, then over-forming them on the board is less of a problem.
Boco once that is off the board ; what did it pin out to at the base of the tail?

notice key words ; such as stretching were omitted

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7449934
01/03/22 03:31 PM
01/03/22 03:31 PM
Joined: May 2011
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Montana
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beartooth trapr Offline
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Montana
That was keeping it's wrinkle full


Let me sugar coat this
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Northof50] #7450065
01/03/22 06:26 PM
01/03/22 06:26 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,261
james bay frontierOnt.
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Boco Offline OP
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james bay frontierOnt.
Originally Posted by Northof50
The importance of individual weighing each marten that I have found. Once you find the zone most of the marten are in that you are trapping, then over-forming them on the board is less of a problem.
Boco once that is off the board ; what did it pin out to at the base of the tail?

notice key words ; such as stretching were omitted


Typical juvenile female size wise.
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]


Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7450565
01/04/22 12:27 PM
01/04/22 12:27 PM
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 785
Labrador, Canada
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crosspatch Offline
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Labrador, Canada
Of course always think of berries as a before snow item. Just remembered seeing a vid. from NFLD, taken mid November this past year, and a marten was hanging UPSIDE DOWN going at the dogberries in a dogberry tree (mountain ash). Maybe another piece of the puzzle with marten getting at winter dogberries. Every dogberry tree in Labrador, and I hear NewFoundLanD, is buried with dogberries this year. Nil last year. There is another Q.: how it is all in sync over such a broad area.

Anyone mind to PM me an e mail address and I can forward the e mail I was sent with the marten in the dogberry tree.

Last edited by crosspatch; 01/04/22 07:13 PM.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7450715
01/04/22 03:59 PM
01/04/22 03:59 PM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,114
Manitoba
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Northof50 Offline
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Manitoba
Unfortunately around here the Fire blight has wreck havoc on the mountain ash trees that surround the lakes killing most of them locally. We have two species of mountain ash trees.
Highbush cranberries were all consumed by 10 October by them and the grouse.

Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7451067
01/04/22 10:30 PM
01/04/22 10:30 PM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,124
McGrath, AK
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white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
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McGrath, AK
Crosspatch sent this video. I hope the link works.

Seems to work OK



Marten in Tree

Last edited by white17; 01/04/22 10:32 PM.

Mean As Nails
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7451275
01/05/22 08:43 AM
01/05/22 08:43 AM
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 785
Labrador, Canada
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crosspatch Offline
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Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 785
Labrador, Canada
Thanks for doing the IT White. Yes it does work. Took about a minute to download on my computer but there is the marten hanging upside down eating berries out a dogberry/mountain ash tree. Vid. was taken in Newfoundland in mid November. Outstanding the agility of those animals in a tree.

Last edited by crosspatch; 01/05/22 08:43 AM.
Re: Fat Marten. [Re: Boco] #7451482
01/05/22 12:33 PM
01/05/22 12:33 PM
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 764
Anchorage, Alaska
broncoformudv Offline
trapper
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 764
Anchorage, Alaska
That is one fat marten, never had any with any sort of fat on them. Really enjoyed the video crosspatch.

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