He went thata way

Two-by-two tracks identify the marten

You can find these tracks just about anywhere you walk in the Boreal Forest during the winter. They are from the marten, known in the U.S. as the pine marten.
This is the main animal sought by trappers. They are easy to catch, easy to skin and bring a premium price per pelt, usually $80-$160. And, as indicated by their tracks, they are abundant.
The track sign is a little bit misleading, however, as one animal covers a lot of territory.
Marten are a mid-size weasel and kill virtually anything they can catch. Their main prey is the redback vole, a small, short-tail woods mouse. The population of marten explodes during years of heavy production of cones by spruce and pine. That's because the seeds in the cones are the main food of the vole.
Marten are expert climbers and are known to also catch red squirrels. They don't catch enough of them to suit me. I sometimes think that the weight of the squirrels on our acreage is greater than the whitetail deer.
Other than trappers, most people never see marten. They are wary of people and disappear like greased lightning.