Isle Royale Forums

We were hiking at the far NE part of the Greenstone last week, very near Lookout Luise. I was talking to my friend then turned around to resume walking down the trail. As I turned, something black/brown with a patch of white, the size of a small/medium sized dog, quickly ran off the trail, about 30’ from where we were walking. We ran over to look, but of course whatever I saw was already gone. A few days later, we visited with Rolf and Candy Peterson and I asked them what they thought I saw. Rolf said it was most likely a Pine Marten. He did say that Pine Marten were seen near Chickenbone Lake in 2015, so seeing one on far NE part of the Island made sense.

Did you let the Rangers know, too? I'm sure they'd be interested, and are probably keeping a log as well.

Yes I did. The next morning we walked down to the Rock Harbor visitor center where I told the ranger who was on duty (Ranger Emma), and the gal who was working the IRKPA counter, what I had saw. They were discussing what it could be when we left. I met with Rolf Peterson later on that afternoon where I learned I'd probably saw a Pine Marten.

For what it's worth I saw a pine martin the third week of May 2015 at Washington Creek campground (Windigo). It strolled through our camp (shelter #1) following the shore with a red squirrel in its mouth. About 10 mins later it swam across the creek and disappeared into the woods. Reported it to ranger Val shortly thereafter.

Interesting. The rangers at RH, when asked during an evening ranger show two weeks ago, told us that they do not have populations of pine martens or fishers on the island. They didn't say anything about the distinction between occasional reported sightings and a confirmed resident population. I also recall, some years ago, that the wildlife biology presenter told us that they had credible sightings, and a clear photograph, of lynx.

bobcat wrote:Interesting. The rangers at RH, when asked during an evening ranger show two weeks ago, told us that they do not have populations of pine martens or fishers on the island...........

This surprises me. Perhaps some of the younger Rangers aren’t up on the latest. The 2015-2016 Wolf/Moose report states that Pine Marten signs have been observed on Isle Royale almost every year since 1991. Quoting, “During winter 2016, tracks of the marten were observed at Windigo, and during 2015 a marten was observed several times at Windigo. Since 1991 marten sign has been observed every year but three, while sign was completely absent during 1959-1990.”

We were on the Ranger's first trip over in 2012 and I spoke with a biologist who was studying them. He'd trapped the first one that had been documented for however many years earlier that winter.