North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[dwoodard@becon.org]

Hans Brinkmann, a while back you mentioned "marten" as a predator on 
squirrels in Germany. Can you tell us something of their habitat and what 
are the limits of human population density they will tolerate?

In North America we have a "pine marten" which is a tree-hunting squirrel 
predator related to the weasel but bigger. From what I have read it 
prefers areas with a lot of pine trees, needs a big range (has a low 
population density itself), and does not tolerate many people in its 
range - although I have encountered one or two suggestions 
that its tolerance for people may be increasing.

I wonder (cautiously) whether a people-tolerant marten could be useful
in dealing with the near-plague of squirrels we have locally.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada