All About Magazine - Issue 12

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The discovery of pine martens in a wood in south
Shropshire has caused huge excitement, locally and
nationally. Video footage from camera traps has
revealed at least two martens in this secret location,
probably arriving from Wales, where there is a very
small population of these beautiful and rare creatures.
“This is a hugely significant discovery,” said Stuart
Edmunds, chair of Shropshire Mammal Group. “We
need to make sure there are places for these beautiful
creatures to live, feed and breed in safety, so we are
setting up a pine marten research project to find
out where they are and how many there may be in
Shropshire.” Pine martens are cat-sized members of
the stoat and weasel family and are active at dusk and
at night in trees, so are very difficult to see. While they
exist in healthy numbers in Scotland, with an estimated
population of 4,000, there have been no confirmed
records of them in England for over 50 years.
These creatures are very mobile, easily travelling
20km in a day. Pine martens are also highly territorial,
with bigger ones pushing out younger, smaller ones
so they need to travel to set up new territories.
We hope to discover the provenance of the Shropshire
pine martens by getting hair samples (using hair tube
traps) and checking the DNA profile against pine
marten populations from Scotland andWales.
Our new pine marten project will involve fieldwork
to establish their distribution and will have a strong
community element, encouraging people in the
area to get involved. We will also be working with
local people to find out their attitudes towards
these creatures and raise awareness about how pine
martens are likely to interact with other wildlife. We
hope to see a positive response to their presence
and a willingness to work together to create the
conditions needed for them to flourish.
If you’d like to help us find out more about
Shropshire’s pine martens please donate securely
at: , or
by post to Pine Marten Appeal, Shropshire Wildlife
Trust, FREEPOST ANG60017, SHREWSBURY, SY2
6ZD. Thank you.
Pine martens in Shropshire!
by Sarah Gibson -
Photo courtesy Chas Moonie - See video footage in the Digital Edition: http://bit.ly/allaboutmagazine
Shropshire
Wildlife Trust
Newport branch of Shropshire Wildlife meet second Tuesday of the month at Church Aston Church Hall, Newport
ALL ABOUT MAGAZINE | FEATURE 49