Joanna here, to say a few words about pine martens and wish them well in their endeavors.
I’m not talking about the American pine marten, fine fellow though he may be, but about the European pine marten. Specifically, the European pine marten in the British isles.
They belong to the same family as otters, weasels, stoats, and polecats. They have the same long sinuous body, the same taste for small animals, and the same tendency to be held in disliked by chicken farmers. It is no accident that “weasel” and “polecat” are not terms of affection.
Martens are native to the British Isles. Original inhabitants, if you would.
They were running around the woods and fields of England up till the 1700s, active, cheeky little fellows with silky brown fur and a white “bib” at the throat. But though they’re agile and intelligent, though they know how to decorate a landscape to the max, nobody loved them.
By the Regency period, they were well on the way to disappearing. I suspect everybody but hunting-mad sportsmen said, “Good riddance.” Pine martens had a bad rep.
But some folks want them back. More on that below.
The pine marten is described as “cat-sized”, though I’d find 3½ pounds small for a cat, meself. They’re very slightly larger than your average wandering polecat and, except for that white bib, pretty much visually indistinguishable from a polecat.
One naturalist describes his attempts to distinguish the two “briefly and in poor light, as is generally the case” which tells us much about the life of naturalists. Stoats and weasels are of the same general appearance, but much smaller.
Interesting marten factoids –
From a cigarette card, 1881. I fear it may be an American pine marten
The pine marten is the only one of its family that’s really comfortable in trees and the only one that has semi-retractable claws with which to be so. You’ll find them hanging out in trees, pretty much dusk to dawn. They nest there and raise their young up there.
They hunt on the ground, though.
Martens eat a healthy paleo diet of mice, voles, rabbits, birds—including the farmer’s favorite poultry—insects, frogs, carrion, berries, birds' eggs, nuts, and honey. They’re apparently strong swimmers and if I were a cat-sized animal and a strong swimmer, I would eat fish.
The Marten is said to be the natural Enemy of the common Cat and that when these Greeks meet, the tug never fails to be mortal, and the Marten is generally the survivor. They are dreadful enemies to Pheasants, pulling them down at roost, and if suffered to encrease near a Preserve, would soon thin the most abundant.
John Lawrence The Sportsman’s Progress
Fertilization occurs in the female pine marten in July, but the egg doesn’t implant till seven months later. (Wonderful are the ways of nature.)
Copulation usually occurs on the ground and can last more than an hour.
Pine martens may be thought of as the champions of red squirrels.
Where pine marten numbers expand, invasive grey squirrel populations quickly retreat. The native squirrel recovers.
I am fond of red squirrels.
I feel this is more than enough to put us firmly on the side of pine martens.
As I said above, by the Regency, the pine marten was becoming rare. Regency references talk about their disappearance from England.
The Marten Cat, it is observed by the Rev. Mr. Chafin, has become scarce in his Vicinity, on account of the breed having been made too free with, for the advantage of their skins; there were however, not many years since, a considerable Number of them in Essex and Suffolk. The Pine-Marten, the most valuable, is said to be found at this time, in the Pine Woods of Scotland and Wales.
John Lawrence The Sportsman’s Progress
So that's what was going on under the noses of our Regency characters.
Why was this happening?
-- That soft fur coat was one reason.
The Victorians. What can I say?
The fur of the Pine Marten is the most valuable of European furs, and in quality resembles that of the Sable more than anyother found on this continent.
Brehm's Life of Animals 1895
-- Habitat destruction was another cause. There was loss of wild, uncultivated places in the 1700s.
-- The martens' perceived taste for the pheasants in those hunting preserves was unpopular with the Powers That Be. Small furry animals should not annoy the Powers That Be.
-- And there’s the delight the gentry found in hunting pine martens (or anything else much) with hounds and horses and a gang of like-minded citizens.
The Victorians finished wiping out the pine martens of England. Thorough folks, the Victorians,
By the Twentieth Century pine martens hung on only in the Scottish Highlands and central Wales. There were isolated populations in Ireland and the Kidland Forest in Northumberland. Cumbria seemed to retain a small population; pine marten scat was identified there in 2011. (Naturalists are so earthy.) And in 2015 a photographer got a shot of one in Shropshire, the first confirmed sighting of a pine marten in England in over a century.
These smaller populations may be survivors of the original UK pine martens, or they may be later introductions from Europe. DNA will eventually reveal all.
We come to a happier turn to this story. Late in the Twentieth Century Environmental Groups swung into action. Pine martens became a priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. They were offered full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and the Environmental Protection Act of 1990.
And groups are attempting to reintroduce pine martens to some of their former range.
The Vincent Wildlife Trust released 20 Scottish pine martens in mid-Wales in 2015 and more in 2016 and 2017, bringing the number to 51. They’re tracking them around the woods with radio collars, taking scat samples, and generally practicing all due diligence in monitoring populations.
In 2019 the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Project Pine Marten introduced 18 into the Forest of Dean. It’s hoped this group, once established, would spread toward stable populations already in Wales.
I’m looking for hopeful signs in the world these days. The reestablishment of this cool species into the forests where it was once happily munching upon voles and berries is certainly that.
What would you like to see happen, wildlife-wise, if you had your choice?
Me – I’d like to see flamingos come back to the wild in Florida. No reason it can’t happen.