Fisher and Marten

Abstract

The genus Martes is circumboreal in distribution, with extensions into southern (M. gwatkinsii) and southeast Asia as far as 7°S latitude (M. flavigula; Anderson 1970). The fisher (subgenus Pekania) is endemic to the New World and restricted to mesic coniferous forest of the boreal zone and its southern peninsular extensions (Hagmeier 1956; Gibilisco 1994). The boreal forest martens, comprising four sibling species (M. martes, M. zibellina, M. melampus, M americana), are distributed parapatrically or allopatrically across the boreal zone from Ireland eastward across Eurasia to North America as far east as Newfoundland Island (Buskirk 1994). The American marten (Fig. 29.1) is distributed similarly to the fisher (Fig. 29.2) in the southern parts of its range, but is found farther north, to the northern limit of trees, than the fisher. In the Rocky Mountains, the range of the marten extends much farther south (to New Mexico) than does that of the fisher (to Montana and Idaho). In the Pacific states, both species occur as far south as the southern Sierra Nevada.