Ray Collier's Country Notes - Pine Martens
<PINE MARTENS
The pine marten has a coat of rich chocolate brown fur that contrasts with creamy yellow or whitish, sometimes apricot, chest patch. The chest patch, sometimes called a bib, varies both in colour, shape and size and so much so that this feature can help to identify individuals. A few animals have little or no chest patch. They are very attractive animals with a slender body and long bushy tail that combine with an unusual grace and agility. They are about the size of a domestic cat and some say it is almost cat like which gives it one of its other names of “marten cat”. The large rounded ears and a pointed snout gives it a heart shaped face. At close quarters the very pale, creamy fur within the ears is conspicuous and this is often highlighted when an animal is lit up by headlights on a road. Some books say that the pine martens in the Highlands are darker than elsewhere but this is difficult to prove as the colour of the coats varies between individuals and seasons. One feature of the pine marten is the length of its legs which many say are shorter than a cat but the photograph indicates otherwise.
In the last few years the attitudes towards pine martens have changed. For centuries they were hunted for the quality of their fur and although widespread in Britain as a whole in the 19th century numbers fell sharply because of persecution. In the Highlands persecution was intense and the killing of so called predators on Glengarry Estate for the years 1837 to 1840 included 246 pine martens as opposed to 106 polecats, 198 wildcats and yet only 11 foxes. With so many keepers going to the two World Wars the pressure on many of these animals was reduced and the number of keepers never really recovered. The next crisis was myxymatosis and again numbers of these animals fell. The pine marten could well have become extinct during these years as did the polecat with the last one supposedly being seen on Inverpolly around 1989 although this has never been confirmed.
The return of the rabbit was one of the reasons why the range and numbers of pine marten have spread but another major contribution must have been the very extensive afforestation programmes in many parts of the Highlands. At the moment it appears that the spread of these elusive animals is slowing down perhaps because of the lack of suitable holes in trees. The alternatives are fissures and holes in rock faces or in block scree faces. They have used bird nest boxes such as those designed for golden eye and in one study an observer put his hand into such a box expecting to find a duck and was bitten by the occupant, a pine marten. In the last few years there has been a great deal of discussion on helping the pine marten. This is not only by law enforcement but also by providing specially designed nest boxes. Some of the latter have already been erected in secret parts of the Highlands. There is also a suggested scheme for re-introducing them, presumable from animals captured in the Highlands, to other parts of Britain. The main reason for hesitation is that some believe there are still small numbers in England and Wales but this has yet to be proven despite exhaustive search and study. If there are still pockets in these countries it would be wiser to encourage them to expand rather than take pine martens from the Highlands.
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Reproduced with kind permission of Ray Collier and The Inverness Courier and Highland News Group.
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