The American Marten is an arboreal member of the weasel family.  It has a slender body, short limbs, and claws designed for climbing well.  It also has a busht tail, flat head, sharp nose, long ears and black eyes.  It has a dense, soft yellow-brown colored fur that is darker on its tail and legs and lighter on its belly, and a pale buff patch on its throat.  Each spring they shed their fur coat.  Although similar, the Newfoundland population of the marten is larger and darker than the American marten.  These martens reach sexual maturity at 15 months of age and they bread once a year. The females give birth to a litter of 1-5 young in the spring.

 The Newfoundland Martens like to live in mature and over-mature coniferous mixed forests and also burnt and canopied forests.

The Newfoundland Marten is endangered because of  habiat loss (due to logging and fires), excessive trapping, logging, human disturbance, accidental captures in traps and snares, preation, disease and limited prey avilability.

These animals were once found all throughout Newfoundland and now the population is limited to mainly the western part of the island.  Since the beginning of the century the population has been declining.  From 1980-1983 there were 630-875 individuals estimated and recently there are fewer than 300 left.

Since about 1934 commercial trapping in Newfoundland was illegal, but accidental captures are still occurring.  In Little Grand Lake the government of Newfoundland decided to create a marten study area where all trapping and  snaring is forbidden in 1973.  Their short-term recovery efforts were to bring the species back to non-exinction levels.