![]() ![]() Scent can be a valuable aid in detection as pine marten scats tend to have a musty sweet scent that is not unpleasant. The ideal pine marten scat is dark and coiled (martens have a curious custom of hip wiggling while scatting, which produces this distinctive shape). Pine marten scats can look a lot like fox droppings, and without a DNA test it can sometimes be tricky to tell the difference. The pine marten is extraordinarily agile and is a very confident climber. Adult pine martens are similar in size to a medium-sized domestic cat with males approximately one third larger than females. Compared with most of its close relatives in Britain, the pine marten has a more pronounced snout and relatively long legs. The main body colour of the pine marten varies seasonally: its thick, mid-brown winter coast becomes shorter and darker in summer. ![]() Rich brown fur contrasts with a creamy-yellow ‘bib’ on the throat and chest and pale fur within the prominent rounded ears. The pine marten has a slim body and a long tail that is thick and bushy in its winter coat. Elsewhere in England, pine martens are present in Shropshire, Hampshire (the New Forest) and are occasionally recorded in other counties. between 20, pine martens were reintroduced to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. Martens are spreading from southern Scotland and naturally re-colonising parts of Northumberland and Cumbria. In England, pine martens are still scarce and have a restricted distribution. In Wales, Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) carried out a pine marten population reinforcement between 20 by translocating pine martens to mid-Wales from Scotland, resulting in the re-establishment of a viable marten population. Today, populations are naturally expanding in number and range in Scotland and Ireland. Small populations survived in Wales and the Marches and in areas of northern England, with relatively strong populations still present in parts of the Scottish Highlands. ![]() The clearance of woodlands, together with predator control, had a devastating effect on the pine marten population and by 1915 this species was confined to just a few of the more remote areas across Britain and Ireland. The pine marten was once the second most common carnivore in Britain during the Mesolithic era. The pine marten ( Martes martes) is one of our rarest carnivores but is making a recovery in some parts of Britain. ![]()
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