Sable | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Mustelidae |
Genus: | Martes |
Species: | M. zibellina |
Binomial name | |
Martes zibellina (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Sable range (green - extant, black - extinct) |
The sable (Martes zibellina) is a marten species, a small carnivorous mammal inhabiting forest environments, primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, northern Mongolia. Its habitat also leans the borders of eastern Kazakhstan, China, North and South Korea and Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia. It has historically been hunted for its highly valued dark brown or black fur, which remains a luxury good to this day. While hunting of wild animals is still common in Russia, most fur in the market is now commercially farmed.
The name sable appears to be of Slavic origin and to have entered most Western European languages via the early medieval fur trade. Thus the Russian соболь (sobol) and Polish soból became the German Zobel, Dutch Sabel; the French zibeline, Spanish cibelina, cebellina, Finnish soopeli, Portuguese zibelina and Mediaeval Latin zibellina derive from the Italian form (zibellino). The English and Medieval Latin word sabellum comes from the Old French sable or saible.