Highlights

This past year has been a trying one for us in terms of marten husbandry. In spite of having ran three pairs together the previous summer, no births occurred in spring of 2000. In addition to this, one male and one female marten died during the year. One other male proved to be incompatible and could not be paired with a female. As a consequence, there was only one pair kept together during the 2000 breeding season program.

During the summer, the Park Animal Curator while on annual leave visited with Dr. Kirsti Rouvinen, and toured her marten breeding facility at the Fur Unit of Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Dr. Rouvinen has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to successfully breed marten in captivity, employing smaller enclosures than those employed here. She has proven to be a valuable and reliable contact to our program. Also visited was the Provincial Wildlife Park, at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. Of special interest here was the occurrence of a successful marten breeding at the public marten display at this facility.

It is interesting to note that the province of Nova Scotia has recognized that its native population of marten appears in jeopardy, and a recovery team has been assembled. It is likely that captive breeding will become an important strategy in the recovery of that population.

In summer 2000, the Park’s marten project was profiled in a Nature Canada article by Theresa Aniskowicz-Fowler, who had toured the facility during the previous summer.

Marten births

As noted in the introduction, there were no marten births during 2000. This despite our optimism of having three pairs successfully co-habit for the duration of the breeding season.

Breeding attempts

We entered the 2000 breeding season in a compromised position. On April 17, our original successful breeding male was found dead in his enclosure. A post-mortem indicated that choking on food was the likely cause of death. This reduced us to two unproven males to run with our four females. On June 28, two pairings were made. Male #1372 was paired with proven breeder #894 and male #1373 was paired with proven breeder #895. Several weeks following this second pairing, the sparse remains of female #895 were discovered. She had apparently been killed and consumed by her mate. On July 23, an attempt was made to introduce female #933 to this male. Upon introduction, keepers immediately had to intervene and remove her, as the male demonstrated extreme antagonism toward this female. On August 2, an attempt was made to introduce this same male to the final available female, #1029. This is the female that he had co-habited with for the duration of the summer of 1999. Again, extreme antagonism was evident, and again it was necessary to remove the introduced female.

The other pairing, of male #1372 and female #894, remained successful. There was an unusually late-season peak in apparent mating activity noted by keepers on August 21 and 22. This pair remained together until October 3.

Mortalities

As noted above, our original adult male was found dead on April 17. Cause of death was attributed to choking on food. An age estimate was conducted by Matson’s Lab on the mandible from this animal. The results of the cementum annuli assessment identified the animal as being 8 years old at time of death.

The only remnants of the adult female killed and eaten by her mate in mid July was the skull. To date, this has not been submitted for ageing.

Infrastructure

The marten pre-release pen, although not having been yet used to house marten, is nonetheless contributing to marten recovery. Minor modifications were undertaken in the fall to allow modified snare trials to be conducted on snowshoe hare in that structure.

The Future

Given that there was only one compatible marten pair run together in 2000, the prospects for recruitment are not encouraging for spring 2001. The antagonistic male still remains in the program. It had been intended that this animal be returned to the wild in the Terra Nova area. However, failure to secure authorization to collect additional animals has meant that we will have to keep this animal and try him in the 2001 breeding season.

This year, we will be seeking permission to acquire three new male and one new female animals from the wild. This would leave us with four breeding pairs, which is the maximum number that our present facility can house. Ideally, we would like to have these animals on site and acclimatized to their new environment by early June, prior to the breeding season.

It is imperative that breeding pairs be chosen with thought to maintaining the genetic variability of animals born into the program. To this end, contact has been made with MUN geneticist Dr. Steve Carr. Dr. Carr is very interested in the project, and has toured the facility and met with staff. We are hopeful that prior to next breeding season, we can contract his lab to provide a pedigree of all program animals. This will be invaluable to ensuring that optimal pairings are attempted.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that being able to fulfill the ambition of the Recovery Plan to stock marten offspring in suitable sites in the wild is dependent on the level of funding and support afforded this project. The existing animal care budget and staff cannot alone carry this project in addition to the usual demand placed on them. Additional resources and marten are required if this program is to be successful in producing marten for restocking.

It is hoped that 2001 will evidence a thorough review of the captive breeding program and the expectations from it. Should it be determined that the breeding program is needed, efforts will be made to ensure that the program receives the kind of commitment that is required to make it successful.