0827: My Favorite Marten, Epsisode II

Danika and Laura snowshoe along a marten trail

Just a few more marten-related photos. Marten are members of the weasel family and as such often travel in what is a called a 2x lope. When they do that, the front feet land near each other and then the rear feet land in the same holes leaving a "2 by 2"pattern.



Another highlight for me was seeing some of the den entrances for 0827. Elaina showed us one entrance at the base of a birch tree. She inserted the antenna cord and we clearly heard the beep beep beep that told us 0827 was home. The fancy word for conducting business (moving, eating, sleeping, etc) under the snow is "subnivean". The marten's den was subnivean and perhaps also under ground as well. The two entrances we viewed were within 20 feet of each other and I assumed they were connected underground.

Marten den

A final photo below shows another entrance that 0827 used the night we were visiting. What I love about this photo is that it doesn't just show the tracks coming and going but also clearly shows strike marks in the snow from the antenna on 0827's collar. I am guessing that this marten was caching some of the bait I used in front of the camera, so this may be an unusual amount of traffic for a single night.

One of 0827's den entrances