A welcome update of one of the world’s cutest, rarest and most elusive mammals has been published in Global Ecology and Conservation. Meet the coastal marten. Once presumed extinct, researchers now have a better idea of where it lives, the types of habit it prefers, and the density of animals still living in northern California.
The coastal martin, also known as the Humboldt marten, once ranged from northern Oregon to northern California, but in the 20th century, they were hunted for their beautiful brown and russet pelts. Along with logging, this caused their numbers to plummet so dramatically, it seemed as though they had disappeared altogether.
Then in 1996, a small population was found in the coastal woods of northern California by a US Forest Service biologist. Today, an estimated 500 individuals remain, inhabiting just 5 per cent of their historic range.
The animals are small, secretive and hard to spot. "There’s a lot we don’t know about this species, including information as basic as what forests do coastal martens still occupy, how many martens are there, and are these populations increasing,” says Sean Matthews from Oregon State University.
To find out more, Matthews and colleagues completed a three-month project using non-invasive tools to collect data on the coastal martens living in a 400-square-kilometre area in northern California. This included 135 remote cameras, and 285 hair snares. The snares are short bits of plastic pipe lined with sticky tape. When the martens scurry through, strands of fur are left behind.
Genetic testing of the hair revealed the presence of 28 male martens and 18 females. Twenty of the camera traps struck gold, recording 86 photographs. From this, the researchers estimate that the martens exist at a density of one animal per three square kilometres.
Coastal martens were found throughout the study area. They were most numerous at high elevations along forested ridgetops with lingering snow, and at lower elevations in coastal forests with ravines and rivers.
“Martens tend to select forest stands with greater than 50 per cent canopy cover and lots of large-diameter trees, snags and hollow logs, says Erika Anderson, who led the study. “Structural complexity with coarse woody debris helps them to hunt and also provides cover from predators and competitors.”
Overall, coastal martens prefer the sort of old-growth forest that is currently being threatened by climate change. Now researchers will use this information to help steer their future conservation.
Top image: coastal marten Credit: Oregon State University
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