Martes melampus (Wagner, 1841) —Japanese Marten

Mustela melampus Wagner in Schreber, 1840 p.229; Type locality- Japan.

Martes melampus coreensis Kuroda and Mori, 1923 p.27; Type locality- Cheonan, Chungcheongnam Province, Korea; Kuroda, 1938 p.27; Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.247; Won, 1958 p.438; Won, 1967 p.108; Won, 1968 p.297; Corbet, 1978 p.173; Yoon, 1992 p.106.

Martes coreensis: Kishida & Mori, 1931 p.381 .

Martes melampus: Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.247; Won, 1968 p.297; Corbet, 1978 p.173; Han, 1994 p.46; Won & Smith, 1999 p.18; Oh, 2004a p.174.

Range: Martes melampus was first discovered in Cheonan City, in central Korea (Won 1967), and until late 1960s, several individuals had been identified annually in Pyongyang fur factories, where furbearers were collected throughout North Korea (Won 1968; Fig. 44). Japanese martens and sables are mostly collected at timber harvesting sites in Yaggang-do. The trapping ratio of the sable is 10 times greater than the Japanese marten (Kim et al. 2015).

Remarks: Heptner et al. (1967) listed M. melampus as a subspecies of M. zibellina . However, genetic analysis showed an apparent interspecific difference between M. melampus and M. zibellina (Kurose et al. 1999; Murakami et al. 2004; Inoue et al. 2010). Kuroda and Mori (1923) reported M. m. coreensis from three specimens collected in central Korea (Cheonan, Seonghwan, and Seoul). Except for one collected by an American soldier in 1957 (Won 1967), all records after the Korean War came from North Korea (Won 1968). Despite records from Korea, some mammalogists regarded M. melampus as endemic to Japan (Masuda 2009).

Conservation status: The North Korean Government banned hunting of M. melampus and designated it and its habitat in Beakam County, Ryanggang Province as a Natural Monument. The Red Data Book of North Korea listed M. melampus as a ‘Vulnerable’ species.