Sable facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sable |
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M. zibellina
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| Martes zibellina (Linnaeus, 1758)
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| Sable range (green - extant, black - extinct) |
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The sable is a small, meat-eating mammal. It belongs to the marten family. Sables mostly live in the cold taiga forests of Russia, especially across Siberia. You can also find them in northern Mongolia, eastern Kazakhstan, China, North Korea, and Hokkaidō, Japan. Long ago, they lived as far west as Poland and Scandinavia.
People have hunted sables for a long time because of their beautiful, soft fur. This fur is usually dark brown or black and is still very valuable today. While some sables are still hunted in Russia, most of the fur sold now comes from sables raised on farms.
Contents
What Does a Sable Look Like?
Male sables are about 38 to 56 centimeters (15 to 22 inches) long, not counting their tail. Their tails are about 9 to 12 centimeters (3.5 to 4.7 inches) long. They weigh between 880 and 1800 grams (1.9 to 4 pounds).
Female sables are a bit smaller. Their bodies are 35 to 51 centimeters (13.8 to 20 inches) long, and their tails are 7.2 to 11.5 centimeters (2.8 to 4.5 inches) long.
Their fur changes with the seasons. In winter, their coat is longer and thicker than in summer. The color of their fur can be light or dark brown, depending on where they live. Their bellies are usually lighter, and their backs and legs are darker. Japanese sables have black fur on their legs and feet. Sables also have a light patch of fur on their throat, which can be gray, white, or pale yellow. Their fur is very soft and silky.
Sables look a lot like pine martens. However, sables have longer heads, bigger ears, and shorter tails.
How Sables Live
Sables live in thick forests filled with trees like spruce, pine, larch, cedar, and birch. They can be found in both flat areas and mountains. Each sable defends its own home area, which can be from 4 to 30 square kilometers (1.5 to 11.5 square miles) in size. The size of their territory depends on how much food is available. If food is hard to find, they might travel far to search for it, sometimes moving 6 to 12 kilometers (3.7 to 7.5 miles) in a single day.
Sables make their homes in burrows near riverbanks or in the densest parts of the woods. They often dig their burrows among tree roots to make them safer. Sables are good at climbing cliffs and trees. They are mostly active during twilight hours, which is dawn and dusk. But they become more active during the day when it's mating season. Their dens are well hidden and lined with grass and shed fur. Sometimes, especially in winter, their dens are only temporary because they travel more to find food.
What Sables Eat
Sables are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. Their diet changes depending on the season. In summer, they eat many hares and other small mammals. In winter, when it's cold and snowy, they eat wild berries, rodents, hares, and even small musk deer. They also hunt ermines, small weasels, and birds. Sometimes, sables follow the tracks of wolves and bears to eat what's left of their kills. They even eat molluscs like slugs, which they rub on the ground to remove the slimy mucus. Sables also sometimes catch fish with their front paws.
They mostly hunt by listening and smelling, as they have excellent hearing. Sables mark their territory using a special scent from glands on their belly. Larger animals that hunt sables include wolves, foxes, wolverines, tigers, lynxes, eagles, and large owls.
Sable Life Cycle and Reproduction
A female sable is pregnant for 245 to 298 days. However, the baby sables only develop for about 25 to 30 days during that time. Baby sables are born in hollows inside trees. A mother sable usually has 1 to 7 young, but most often, she has 2 or 3 babies. Male sables help the females by protecting their territory and finding food.
Newborn sables are born with their eyes closed and a very thin layer of hair on their skin. They weigh about 25 to 35 grams (0.9 to 1.2 ounces) and are 10 to 12 centimeters (3.9 to 4.7 inches) long. Their eyes open when they are about 30 to 36 days old. They leave the nest soon after that. At seven weeks old, the young sables stop drinking milk and start eating food that their mother brings them. Sables can live up to 22 years on fur farms and up to 18 years in the wild.
Sables can sometimes have babies with pine martens. This happens in the wild where their living areas overlap, like in the Ural Mountains. Sometimes, people on fur farms even encourage them to breed. The babies from a sable and a pine marten are called kidus. They are a bit smaller than pure sables and have rougher fur, but they look similar otherwise and have a long, bushy tail.
Where Sables Live Today
In Russia, many sables were released back into the wild between 1940 and 1965. About 19,000 sables were set free, which helped their numbers grow. Their living area now stretches north to where the trees stop growing. In western Siberia, they live south to about 55–60° latitude, and in the mountains of eastern Asia, they live south to 42° latitude. They are also found in the Ural Mountains, where they live alongside the European pine marten. Sables also live on Sakhalin Island.
In Mongolia, sables live in the Altai Mountains and the forests around Lake Hovsgol. The sables from the Trans-Baikal forest region, which is connected to Lake Hovsgol, have the most valuable fur. In China, sables are found in a small part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In northeastern China, they are now mostly found in the Greater Khingan Range. Some sables might still live in the Lesser Khingan Range in eastern Heilongjiang. Sables also live in Hokkaido, Japan, and on the Korean peninsula.
Scientists have debated how many different types, or subspecies, of sables exist because they look different in various places. Some sources say there are 17 different subspecies, while others suggest there could be anywhere from 7 to 30.
Images for kids
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Marie Antoinette and Her Children by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1787). The Queen is shown wearing a dress and a pouf trimmed with sable.
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Sable fur skins in Milan. The price depends on how glossy and black the fur is.
See also
In Spanish: Marta cibelina para niños
