Montana mammals

Pacific Marten in Montana

Martes caurina

Native to Montana SU Unrankable in Montana

Not listed as nonindigenous in Montana by USGS NAS; native to its Montana range.

IUCN Red List status

NE – Not Evaluated

Not yet assessed against IUCN Red List criteria.

Pacific Marten in Montana, by the numbers

Occasional in Montana 72nd most recorded of 122 mammals logged in Montana

27 occurrence records

Records from 2000–2026.

When to look for the Pacific Marten in Montana

Most sightings fall in January.

27 Montana occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence. Based on a small number of dated records; the seasonal pattern may not be representative.

Monthly Montana records (table)
MonthRecords
January4
February2
March3
April1
May2
June3
July3
August2
September1
October1
November3
December2

Monthly pacific marten occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Montana, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Montana, with recorded sightings peaking in January, with a smaller rise in November and March.

Occurrence map

Where Pacific Marten has been recorded in Montana

27 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

27 Montana records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Gallatin National Forest 3
Yellowstone National Park 1

Protected places with the most pacific marten sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Montana

CountyRecords
Park County 5
Gallatin County 5
Ravalli County 5
Beaverhead County 3
Meagher County 2
Mineral County 2
Missoula County 1
Madison County 1
Sweet Grass County 1
Carbon County 1
Powell County 1

The complete county distribution, spread across 11 Montana counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Pacific marten records in Montana are thin, just 27 total, reflecting a forest carnivore that hunts through dense conifer canopy and downed timber where it’s rarely seen even by hikers passing directly underneath. NatureServe lists the species SU, Unrankable, in Montana, a status reserved for animals too poorly surveyed to assign a confident conservation grade.

Reports scatter across March, June, and November without forming a single clean seasonal peak, a pattern that likely reflects trapping and camera-survey timing more than the marten’s true activity calendar.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

More mammals in Montana in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"