■ ASK AN ANIMAL: PINE MARTEN

Why are you so tricky to spot?

“We pine martens live pretty solitary lives, tbh. I’m very defensive of my territory and won’t tolerate any other pine martens in it – unless it’s the mating season that is. We also do most of our hunting and foraging at dawn, dusk or night, which makes it harder. And there aren’t that many of us. We used to be the second most common carnivore in the country but from the 18th century hunting for fur, predator control by gamekeepers and habitat fragmentation brought us close to extinction. We’re clawing it back now, with some help.”

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