Aug 03, 2007 - 04:03:08 CDT
American martens, long considered vanished from North Dakota's few forests, are re-establishing themselves in the Turtle Mountains.That's the conclusion of a fledgling research project that's looking at the small, cuddly-looking members of the weasel family.
"There is evidence they are reproducing, and they are spread around the Turtle Mountains, not just in small pockets," Tom Serfass, a professor of wildlife ecology at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Md., said Thursday during a visit to Bismarck.
Student researchers are collecting photographs and other evidence of the existence of martens, including some believed to be juveniles, in one of North Dakota's few forested regions.
"I'm personally surprised, and I'm excited to see them there," Serfass said.
Serfass is hesitant to put a number on how many martens could be living in the Turtle Mountains.
"They have detected martens in 36 of the 180 cells they are monitoring," he said. Each cell is one square kilometer.
"But it's not as if we surveyed every square meter of every cell," Serfass added.
Graduate student Amber Bagherian, of the Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center, and two Frostburg State University undergraduates, Tommy Baden and Steve Lowry, have been on-site all summer, monitoring 30 remote cameras and 30 track plates, devices that take footprints of animals crossing them. A fourth student, Lou Allard, a Frostburg State graduate student, also spent time helping with the marten surveys.
The cameras and track plates are moved about every two weeks through most forested areas of the Turtle Mountains except for tribal lands, Serfass said.
The project is being funded through a State Wildlife Grant, said Sandra Johnson a nongame biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. It's part of a bigger study to assess a variety of mesal carnivores, including fishers.
Martens aren't one of NDGFD's 100 species of conservation priority because "we didn't think they were here. We thought martens were extirpated," she said.
Martens are forest dependent; their range includes the forested portions across the northern United States and across Canada. Serfass speculated that the Turtle Mountain martens are part of a reintroduction project in Manitoba, Canada.
Martens are light brown to dark brown, and their throats and chests are lighter-colored, typically ranging from cream to gold. Those light-colored bibs help distinguish martens from minks. They are smaller than house cats, have bushy tails, and their primary diet is small mammals.
Martens are considered furbearers with a closed season, and the law requires incidental takes to be turned over to NDGFD.
"I have heard rumors from trappers that they suspect martens are (in the Turtle Mountains), but none have been turned over to the department," said Dorothy Fecske, NDGFD's furbearer biologist.
Conventional wisdom says martens' habitat preference is old conifer forests, Serfass said. "The Turtle Mountains' small conifers seem to indicate it's not good marten habitat," he said. But photographs are proving otherwise.
Serfass guesses anyone hiking or hunting in the Turtle Mountains' forests has a chance of seeing a marten. The Turtle Mountains are in the north-central part of the state.
"Some neighbors of the students have seen them in the trees, and they have been seen during the daytime," he said.
Martens were noted in North Dakota in the early 1800s, according to a 1926 publication, "A Biological Survey of North Dakota," by biologist Vernon Bailey, who also indicated no martens were present in the state in the 1920s.
"Apparently, martens were originally fairly common in the timbered sections of northeastern North Dakota, but the beauty and value of their fur caused the early destruction of the species in that part of the state," Bailey wrote.
Martens are only one of the species caught on the cameras.
Raccoons were another common subject, but "only three or four coyotes were detected and no badgers," Serfass said. Other species photographed were "a few minks," porcupines and feral cats "that are always a nuisance in the wild," he added.
But, for Serfass, the best pictures were of the martens.
"When the student sent me that picture, it's fun, fun," he said.
(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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