They Seek Him Here, They Seek Him There
By Mike Morgan
Operation to snap elusive pine marten
FOREST chiefs are stepping up a local search for a rare and elusive tree climbing mammal, written off as extinct in England only a few years ago.
Special cameras triggered by infra-red beams are being installed in a remote North York Moors wood in a bid to capture an image of a pine marten - the second rarest carnivore in Britain after the wild cat.
Although the exact location of where the pine marten is believed to have been sighted cannot be disclosed, the Evening Gazette can reveal that the site is in woods in the Osmotherley area.
Four years ago forest chiefs, aided by local conservationists, began a project to track down the creature, which can grow up to two feet long, after an experienced naturalist made a reliable sighting in the area.
Sticky tubes baited with jam sandwiches were deployed in a bid to collect hair samples from the phantom sweet-toothed animal.
More recently, boxes designed by the Vincent Wildlife Trust have been erected to offer martens a ready-made home to raise their young.
Brian Walker, Forestry Commission wildlife officer for the North York Moors, said: "The cameras are being trained on feeding stations near the boxes and if anything breaks the invisible beam any time of the day or night, the shutter will be activated.
"My gut feeling is that we do have pine martens, but they are few in number, nocturnal, and often in the trees, making them extremely tough to spot."
A number of scat (faeces) samples found on the boxes have undergone DNA analysis to determine their origin - martens are known to mark their territories in this way.
One batch proved to be from a stoat, but another is being subjected to further laboratory tests.
Pine martens look similar to a ferret or stoat, but are significantly larger, and sport a bushy tail.
Today the animal is mainly restricted to the Scottish Highlands.
Evening Gazette: 20th August 2008
