You agree with what they're saying? Sounds like pretty firm conclusions for such a small sample.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/me...mp;cvid=ccbc8399ba064eaabd447a480c158697

Right, small sample size. Marten are preyed upon by other predators. Owls and birds of prey. They do not, or rarely prey on squirrels. There isn’t much for a marten to eat in winter except small prey like voles and shrews. Where are they getting veggies?
People doing the study had a predetermined idea to prove!

Well, one real glaring flaw would seem to be the fact that they mention the 5 marten trapped in the Huron Marten Club, were captured in the dead of Winter, according to the article, so there wouldn't likely be much vegetarian component available in that time of year? From the article, I'm presuming the other 16 that were captured "during trapping season", were captured earlier in the Fall, thus the higher likelihood of available vegetation, for the martens dietary intake (berries, crab apples, or other mast crops).
This is not to mention that these locations are obviously at different locations/ habitat types, so it would stand to reason that some areas just have a higher abundance of microtines available as a prey base!? I certainly wouldn't consider it to be a very conclusive analysis!
You realize the leading cause of statistics is studies, right !!??

Maybe some actual marten biologists can voice a more professional opinion of this "study" than my slightly jaded perspective.......

"Traps were baited with chicken, deer, beaver, or pork and lured with Gusto, Tree Climber, Skunk Junk (Pennock, MN), or Lenon’s Fox #3 Nature’s Call (Turner, MI). We selected baits and lures based on conversations with local marten trappers. We applied lures to a stick approximately one meter in height positioned next to the trap and checked traps every ~12 hours."


Thats how they did it for you Marten trappers. I gave Dr. McKenney an email, I would have liked to see a rodent and small mammal density study in this but it was absent.

Marten are opportunistic, they'll eat anything from raspberry jam to yellow jacks to voles.
I think nearly every marten trapper knows this.
Not quite sure what this study proves or tries to imply.

They said Marten live in trees-told me everything I needed to know about "the study".

Goofy article. Good picture of a marten though.

I also read that marten that live near humans not only turned vegetarian but they also started to question their gender.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The marten living near me now drink pabst. I'm a bad influence.

I don't give this study any credence at all. I'll admit, I didn't read the Journal article, just the print-out referenced above, and it may be poorly written or flawed.

First off, the article was published in PLOS ONE, a journal I've never even heard of. Even if it is "peer reviewed" (which I only assume it is), the journal might not have decent reviewers. There are a multitude of "new" journals being put out that are complete junk. My point is that just because a "scientific" article is published in a journal, doesn't mean it's good science.

As mentioned earlier, the sample size is relatively small, and the conclusions seems to be based on marten from two different locations.

To study the diet of predators, it's become relatively well accepted to use stable isotope technology. Why wasn't this methodology used to determine diet? No mention of it.

Again, to me, this study is bogus. At least in this article (without going to the journal article), I would certainly ask. "So what?" How will the supposed results affect the management of marten? Don't let them live in close proximity to humans, cause they eat fewer squirrels? Maybe the next thing will be to enact legislation making it illegal to pick berries because it's now vitally important marten food.

Jack

They should talk to the Marten study people In WI. They been at It for around 20 years and still have no answers to why we don't have a harvest-able marten population.

PA trappers would like to see some real marten studies also. PA is thinking about introducing marten

In the areas that have them near me there sure are a lot of tracks on the ground for a tree dwelling predator. Then again I haven’t tried to track them up in the trees.
There is one of those capped 8” gate posts concreted in near here maybe 4’ tall with a cut out for the swing arms lock bar and access for the lock.
Last spring there was a marten nest in it. Saw the female flush out and tiny babies in. Hope I didn’t corrupt them.
First “nest” of one I’ve actually seen being used.

Osky

Have to get fetterwoman on it! lol.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0275850


There is the full study, just find the pdf option.

What Jack said...!

Pete

That last thing about Jack said about prohibiting humans from picking berries is not far off. When I buy Forest Service or BLM mushroom permits it is stipulated that I leave a percentage of the mushrooms I find as wildlife forage. I always chuckle over that because I'm not sure the elk/deer/ squirrels extend to me the same courtesies.

Hope you left the marten nest a vegan offering lol

I think Jack's comment covers most everything. Nevertheless I feel the need to ask the authors....."how close do humans have to be to a marten population before it has an impact ? a mile ? 5 miles ? 100 miles ? Is that alleged impact good or bad ?


Also, since nearly everything a marten eats is an herbivore, why is it surprising to find vegetable matter in a marten's feces or gut ?

Seems to me that the more a marten pursues his carnivorous ways, the greater a proportion of vegetable matter he is exposed to in the gut of his prey. Also, most martens I have seen eating are doing so on the ground. Doesn't that also expose them to ingesting vegetable matter ?

Years ago Jack gave me a microscope and asked me to sort through marten stomachs and catalog the contents. I was surprised how many small rocks I found but after thinking about them eating fish on a shoreline or grouse with gravel in their crop it made perfect sense.

The only non-natural thing I found in a marten gut was a small piece of blue tarp.