Pine marten survey launched in UK

Male pine marten in winter coat. Credit Frank Greenaway/Vincent Wildlife Trust.

The search for the UK's second rarest mammal has stepped up a gear. ‘Prospects for Pine Martens' is a new project seeking local community support to help locate the remaining populations of Pine Martens in England and Wales.

1000 sightings in Wales and northern England
The whereabouts of the Pine Marten in England and Wales is something of a mystery and one of the great puzzles for UK mammal experts. What is known is that over the past 14 years The Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) has recorded nearly 1000 possible sightings of pine martens in parts of Wales and northern England.

Now the Trust wants to involve more people in ‘hotspot' areas. Communities are being invited to join in with surveys, to sponsor a camera-trap, adopt a den box or report a possible sighting via the Trust's recently launched ‘Prospects for Pine Martens' website. www.pinemarten.info will allow anyone to find out how they can become part of the action.

Hot pursuit
The ‘Prospects for Pine Martens' project, funded in England by Natural England and in Wales by the Countryside Council for Wales and Environment Wales, has also set up a ‘Hot pursuit' approach. This involves staff ‘racing' to the location of a possible sighting at short-notice and organising an intensive short-term survey.

It is hoped that local partners and communities will also become involved in fast response surveys, including scat (droppings) and hair-tube surveys. "This will be a really good way of expanding our survey effort across multiple ‘hotspot' areas, by engaging local people and communities in pine marten monitoring and conservation issues on their patch" said Neil Jordan, the VWT‟s Pine Marten Project Manager.

Yorkshire has most sightings
In Yorkshire, location of the highest number of possible sightings for any area of England and Wales, a Pine Marten scat survey will take place on the North York Moors in August.

Lake District
There will be intensive monitoring in the south Lake District, working in partnership with the Forestry Commission, National Trust, Lake District National Park Authority, United Utilities and Wild Ennerdale.

Local enthusiasts and communities in this ‘hotspot' will be provided with equipment to conduct long-term scat and hair-tube surveys on their home patch. Monitoring will include a combination of hair-tubes, bait-stations, den boxes and scat surveys. Scent, vocal and food lures will be used to attract the Pine Martens in to have their photo taken using camera traps.

Wales
In Wales, with the help of the local volunteers, monitoring will take place in a number of ‘hotspots', including areas of Snowdonia, Mid and South Wales.

"An ideal volunteer will be someone who walks regularly in a good ‘hotspot' area and is keen to help. In this way we will increase the chances of finding positive signs because the surveyors will know the area well and be able to conduct more regular searches," said Neil.

More about the The Vincent Wildlife Trust 

For more information about the ‘Prospects for Pine Martens' project and ways of taking part, please go to www.pinemarten.info