Monitoring Olympic’s Martens
By Janis Burger
[published in Voice of the Wild Olympics, Fall – Winter 2023]
A few winters ago while cross-country skiing near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, I noticed abundant bounding snowy tracks of martens near my cabin. Locals suggested I hang out by the dumpster to see the actual critters since they were often spotted dumpster diving!
Here in the Olympics, it’s a different story. Though Pacific martens (Martes caurina) were historically present, overharvest and habitat loss led to a steep decline by the 1960s. Despite countless hours of camera trapping between 2001 and 2017, only four martens were detected, though the cameras captured many images of their successfully reintroduced larger cousins, Pacific fishers, as well as other species. So the park partnered with Olympic National Forest, Woodland Park Zoo and the U.S. Geological Survey to test newly developed scent dispensers with infrared camera traps that could be left out all winter. That pilot project detected martens at 11 of 33 scent stations in 2018 and 2019.
The technique could safely monitor hard-to-reach, snowy, high-elevation sites all winter long, a challenge for biologists. So the park worked with the University of Washington to fund Master’s student Dylan Hubl to expand the survey. Again partnering with Olympic National Forest and Woodland Park Zoo, and with financial help from Olympic Park Advocates, Hubl and his crew deployed 67 survey stations across the park and forest in the summer of 2022. Each site had an automatic scent dispenser and two cameras, one monitoring the scent station and the other a nearby wildlife trail.
Hubl and his crew recovered the survey stations in 2023 after the cameras had spent a year silently watching for martens and anything else attracted to the odoriferous lure.
“Unfortunately, we only detected marten at two of the 67 survey sites,” Hubl said, after recently reviewing the images. “One was in Seven Lakes Basin, the other near Low Divide,” he explained.
They did get images of black bears, cougars, bobcats, coyotes, flying squirrels, elk and deer. A highlight was documenting fishers—which were reintroduced starting in 2008—at 15 sites across the Peninsula, some in places they hadn’t been seen yet. Hubl is interested in how his data, combined with past surveys, may help reveal how fisher occupancy has evolved on the Peninsula.
His team also collected scat, and deployed tiny brushes and sticky pads near the lures to collect hair samples from animals as they investigated the odor. Those will be sent in for DNA analysis.
Hubl is deploying five scent stations at different locations in Olympic National Forest this winter. There they will keep a watchful lens peeled for marten through the snowy winter while he analyzes data and takes classes in the less challenging environs of Seattle.
Fisher Restoration Bolstered in the Olympics
Feb. 8, 2022
A decade ago, Olympic National Park made a great stride in ecological restoration with its historic reintroduction of fishers. Park, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and Tribal biologists released 90 fishers into the Olympics. With healthy populations of squirrels, snowshoe hares, mountain beavers and other small mammals to prey on, the fishers did well. However, genetic analysis of second- and third-generation fishers revealed that only four females successfully bred. This signaled a loss of genetic diversity that could endanger the animals’ long-term survival.
In 2020 Olympic Park Advocates made a significant contribution toward a supplemental fisher reintroduction. The following fall, 19 fishers were live-captured in Alberta and transported to the Olympics. Five were released at Ozette, six at Staircase and eight at Sol Duc. Park, State and Tribal biologists will monitor their movements through signals from satellite radio collars. With luck, these Alberta fishers will share their genes with the British Columbia-sourced animals from the earlier reintroduction.
OPA is extremely grateful to ONP wildlife branch chief Patti Happe, who directed the project from its beginning, WDFW carnivore conservation biologist Jeff Lewis, and the numerous Tribal biologists and field crews that are making this reintroduction a success. With fishers returned, only one wildlife species remains missing from Olympic forests, the wolf.
For more detailed information on fisher reintroduction, check out this March 2020 YouTube video of Patti Happe discussing the return of fishers to the Park.
OPA Funds Efforts to Bolster Genetic Diversity of Fishers in ONP
Nov. 16, 2020
Fishers are forest carnivores closely related to wolverines. They are about the size on a large brown cat and den in cavities in old trees, making the old-growth forest of Olympic National Park an ideal habitat. Fishers prey on squirrels, mountain beavers, snowshoes hares and other small mammals.
Although native to the Olympic Peninsula, fishers were trapped to extinction a century ago for their silky, luxurious fur. Some 90 fishers were reintroduced into Olympic National Park between 2008 and 2010. About half of them survived but few were reproducing. By 2016, third-generation fishers were distributed throughout the Peninsula. However, genetic analysis demonstrated that the same four females from the founding population showed up in all samples. This signaled a significant loss of genetic diversity over time, a condition that could endanger the species’ long-term survival in Olympics.
Working with Washington’s National Park Fund, OPA made a significant contribution toward a supplemental introduction of fishers from Alberta to the Olympics. Other partners were also generous, and the introduction is on track to take place this fall.
For more detailed information on fisher reintroduction check out this YouTube video of ONP Wildlife Branch Chief Patti Happe discussing the return of fishers to the Park.