Interesting movements in life of the pine marten
I make no excuses for mentioning the pine marten again so soon after mid February, because there have been some interesting developments. These have been publicised by the excellent regular press releases from Scottish Natural Heritage.
The first reveals that pine martens are spreading even further than we thought. There are now confirmed records from further south in its range in Scotland than ever before as they have begun to re-colonise three new areas in the south of Scotland.
The three new sites are immediately south and west of Glasgow, the Upper Tweed valley and in Annandale and Eskdalemuir in eastern Dumfries and Galloway. The SNH points out that a small number of pine martens were reintroduced to the Galloway Forest in the early 1980s but the new arrivals are not thought to have spread from this group – which has remained in isolation.
These new groups of pine martens have most likely originated from a combination of natural spread and deliberate releases as the latter cannot be ruled out.
The news came about from work by SNH and in collaboration with the Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT). The information came from collecting pine marten droppings from woodlands and subjecting them to DNA analysis to confirm their origin. Records of pine martens were also collected from a range of people such as foresters and naturalists as well as local record centres.
A spokesman for the VWT said that the return is significant as the pine marten has been absent from southern Scotland for almost 200 years.
There is one statement from SNH that is interesting as it says that pine martens are still absent from most of England and Wales. Just how many records for these two countries have now been recognised as such?
Leaving the press statement aside, the success of the so-called natural spread of the pine marten is interesting as to just how much has been attributed to ourselves? Apart from the spread of suitable habitats such as conifer plantations, I am sure there are far more people than we realise feeding pine martens and this includes in their back gardens!
There is also far less persecution of pine martens these days, although no doubt it still goes on by misguided people. It was fully protected in 1988 and, although some people ignore this aspect, it would seem to have little affect on the number of pine martens these days.
One other aspect we tend to forget is the way that pine martens can invade houses or garages and cause a nuisance of various types. For years SNH has had a more enlightened policy over these animals that often breed there. So much so that it had a contract with a naturalist who dealt with all such matters and, not only dealt with the problem, but advised the owners of the property of the ways forward.
The end result has been a special paper that is inside as an attachment to their latest press release. It is entitled "Living with Pine Martens – a guide to the pine marten in Scotland". Well worth unloading if you have a problem or are interested in pine martens.
One fascinating point about mammals is that most of them have their own local names and many of these, although old, are still in common use today. For example "Brock" is a name for badger that is often used. Perhaps Brock come from the Gaelic name "broc". In the same way many people call the fox "reynard" or even "tod".
However, some names have long gone into the history books and are rarely heard these days. Such is the case with "foulmart" and "sweetmart" and I wonder how many of you know what these referred to?
Well, obviously the one is a foul smelling and the other sweet smelling, but very few people probably know these are, respectively, referring to the polecat and the pine marten. At one time these names were in constant use.
