The elusive pine marten
Turds. Long, thin, strangled ones, slimmer than a fox’s, with a pointy end, are what you need to look for. They will be on prominent rocks or tree stumps, again much like a fox’s, but they’ll smell a bit more ‘musky’. That’s right, smell. If you want to identify a pine marten spraint (poo), you need to get down on your hands and knees and give it a good sniff, the closer the better.
I mention all this because the pine marten’s little ‘presents’ that it leaves at strategic points to mark its territory, are in reality the closest you’re going to get to this agile, nocturnal predator. But, they’re out there and they’re spreading. They have been since the 1920s. Before that, it was a sorry tale – the usual one when it comes to a predator that’s good at catching game birds. Yes, persecution saw them brought almost to extinction in this country. It was only the onset of WWI and the army of gamekeepers off serving in the forces that gave the pine marten the chance to recover.
That recovery has been slow. Once sexually mature at the age of two, pine martens have a litter of not normally more than three kittens. What’s really interesting though is that mating takes place in July or August, yet the egg isn’t fertilised until about January, ensuring the kittens aren’t born until the more advantageous spring time. This is known as delayed implantation. The real barrier to a swift population recovery is that they don’t breed every year, while other similar predators, for instance the fox again, breed like, erm, rabbits.
The pine marten is a mustelidae, that’s a member of the weasel family. Other members of the clan in this country include of course the weasel, stoat, otter, polecat, the polecat-ferret and, if there are any left, the mink. The pine marten is about the same size as a domestic cat. The coat is a rich red/ brown, with the limbs and tail being darker. On its chest it has a creamy bib. That tail is large and bushy. The body shape is narrow and males are larger than females. Their diet is mainly made up of rodents, squirrels, rabbits, hares, moles, birds, eggs, lizards, frogs, worms and insects. They’ll also take on a bees nest, not only eating the honey, but the bees as well – hardcore. Just to add a little refinement to that diet and maybe keep them regular, they’ll eat berries, fruits and nuts. I think you could call them omnivorous and they wouldn’t be offended.
The pine marten thrives in native Scots pine forests, but luckily for them they can adapt as we haven’t much of that habitat left. You can also find them in open mountain country, in broad-leaved woodland, in the many conifer plantations and, surprisingly, in the winter, close to farms, where they hoover up any mice or rats that take shelter in barns. Today, some people who are lucky enough to live near them encourage them into the garden by leaving food out. Scotland, Wales and parts of England have populations of pine marten. They are thought to be a possible solution to curbing the rise of the American grey squirrels. Pine martens can catch red squirrels, but they struggle as the reds can get themselves out onto the thinnest of branches where martens just can’t reach. The larger grey squirrels, on the other hand, aren’t able to get away from a pine marten quite so easily. Nature has the solution, yet again.
There are also places where there are too many pine martens and they’re having an adverse affect on such birds as the capercaillie. In these places, increasing the number of foxes (pine martens only have us, foxes and eagles to fear) to counter the booming marten numbers may be the key.
Next time you’re out in a pine forest, keep your eyes up for tree-climbing martens and down for their glistening gifts. Good luck!
THE ‘PRESENTS’ THE PINE MARTEN LEAVES TO MARK ITS TERRITORY ARE THE CLOSEST YOU’LL LIKELY GET TO THIS AGILE PREDATOR