Looking for Martens
Photo: Daniel Harrington
In the North Cascades, it’s unusual for us to visit a remote camera station that HASN’T been visited by Pacific martens—smaller cousin to wolverines and every bit as charismatic. But not so in the Olympic Range, where martens are rarely sighted and may even be at risk of local extinction. Last week, Robert and I initiated our seasonal camera deployments for the Olympics’ missing martens, as part of Woodland Park Zoo’s ongoing collaboration with Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.
Our quest began in 2017, when we first partnered with the Forest Service to deploy overwinter cameras and scent dispensers in hopes of detecting martens. Between 1968–2017, agency biologists had confirmed only 11 martens on the Olympic Peninsula, where they were heavily trapped (and poisoned) a century ago. In the past 3 years, we’ve documented an additional 11 martens at cameras, although some of these could have been the same individual. Two additional martens were opportunistically photographed in 2019.
A marten at one of our camera stations in the Olympic Range, 2019. Photo: Woodland Park Zoo/Olympic National Park
With only two dozen martens documented in the last 50-plus years—almost exclusively in pockets of high-elevation habitat—the stakes are high for this mid-sized carnivore. Martens in the Olympics are now geographically isolated from their relatives in the Cascades, and climate change predictions don’t bode well for their association with snow. We need more information about how many martens are out there, which areas they’re using, and what conservation measures they might require to ensure the population’s survival.
Our recent outing with Forest Service biologist Betsy Howell was one of a few trips we have planned in the Olympics this summer, as we strive to find more martens and lay the groundwork for a (funding-dependent) graduate student in the future. Meanwhile, it felt good to enjoy spring in the mountains again, as you can see from the photos below. Fingers crossed that martens make their way to our cameras!
