Fur trade Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of the pelts of martens, beavers, wolves, foxes, squirrels and hares. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia, a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox, lynx, sable, sea otter and stoat (ermine). In a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and later for the northern fur seal, the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska. From the 17th through the second half of the 19th century, Russia was the world's largest supplier of fur. The fur
Beech marten a more generalist and adaptable species, occurring in a number of open and forest habitats. Its most likely ancestor is "Martes vetus", which also gave rise to the pine marten. The earliest "M. vetus" fossils were found in deposits dated to the Würm glaciation in Lebanon and Israel. The beech marten likely originated in the Near East or southwestern Asia, and may have arrived in Europe by the Late Pleistocene or the early Holocene. Thus, the beech marten differs from most other European mustelids of the Quaternary, as all other species (save for the European mink) appeared during the Middle