Sable Sable The sable ("Martes zibellina") is a species of marten, a small carnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments, of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kazakhstan, China, North Korea and Hokkaidō, Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia. Historically, it has been hunted for its highly valued dark brown or black fur, which remains a luxury good to this day. While hunting is still common in Russia, most fur on the market is now commercially farmed. The name "sable" appears to be
California Fur Rush California Fur Rush Before the 1849 California Gold Rush, American, English and Russian fur hunters were drawn to Spanish (and then Mexican) California in a California Fur Rush, to exploit its enormous fur resources. Before 1825, these Europeans were drawn to the northern and central California coast to harvest prodigious quantities of southern sea otter ("Enhydra lutris nereis") and fur seals ("Callorhinus ursinus"), and then to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to harvest beaver ("Castor canadensis"), river otter ("Lontra canadensis"), marten, fisher, mink, gray fox ("Urocyon cinereoargenteus"), weasel, and harbor seal. It was