iN PHOTOS: Elusive pine marten caught on camera in North Okanagan forest

Pine martens known to be elusive creatures, so it is a rare and special occasion when one makes an appearance.

North Okanagan resident Jeremy Thomson was hiking around Sugar Lake near Cherryville with his dad recently, when a pine marten peered out of a tree at them, just long enough for its picture to be taken.

“The tree he was on he scaled near instantly despite it being covered in ice,” Thomson said in a message to iNFOnews.ca. “He was an acrobatic little guy. He was very curious but kept his distance.”

Found in mature forests throughout Canada, pine martens are long and slender members of the weasel family with long, silky fur, according to Nature Canada.

Equipped with sharp, curved and semi-retractable claws, martens are aggressive predators that spend a lot of time hunting for small mammals, birds and insects, and feasting on carrion. Few predators can match the quickness and agility of the adult marten, although the young are vulnerable to carnivores like wolves or owls.

Martin populations declined in North America in the late 1800s up until the 1940s due to being hunted for their pelts and habitat loss from forestry operations. Since then, management around forestry and fur harvesting has allowed their populations to increase.