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First time you see a Pine Martin on the escape.

I think I'll scream. I actually do.

It's going to be a day of celebration.

Yeah, absolutely.

Have you ever seen a Pine Martin? Could you picture what

they look like? These small, slinky, tree-dwelling predators

were once one of the most common carnivores in Britain and

Ireland. Now they're one of the rarest.

But Pine Martins are making a comeback. In this episode we're

joining my fellow Ranger Dan Eyston in Northumberland to

uncover the story and secret lives of these mysterious

animals.

I'm Rosie Holdsworth. Welcome to Wild Tales, Pine Martins Return.

There was once a time you could look at a tree in UK woods and

you might catch a glimpse of an unusual animal.

Cat-like, agile, with sharp teeth and sharper claws,

pocket-sized predator the Pine Martin climbed freely around

their treetop territory, hunting, making their homes and

raising tiny kits.

Then, over the centuries, habitat loss and persecution

drove these arboreal animals to the absolute brink.

But now, determined conservation work has given Pine Martins

another chance.

In Wallington Estate in Northumberland, Ranger Dan's on

a mission. He and his team are determined to encourage Pine

Martins down from Scotland through Northumberland to make

these woodlands their forever home. How close is Dan to

getting to see Pine Martins for the first time? And what can we

discover from the conservation success stories where After a

long absence, Pine Martins are back in our forests.

Hello, I'm Ranger Dan. We're here at Wallington in the New

Hyde, situated off Westwood. We're looking out on a mixed

woodland of young oak trees and some mature larch. We can hear

the birds singing.

It's a spring morning and Dan shares how starting the day in

the woods is his happy place.

So I finished university. I've always loved nature, always been

really interested in being outside. I love the outdoors,

being out on walks, climbing, swimming. And that led me into

wanting to do a job where I could work outside, work with

nature and try and help nature conservation in the country.

I've got a son and I'm trying to get him out as much as possible,

which has always got its little adventures to it. He loves the

water as well, which keeps us on our toes.

Hunkered in this small wooden lookout hide away from the

visitor path, you're immersed in the forest and nature is all

around you.

Here in Wallington, in rural Northumberland, we're surrounded

by a wealth of wildlife. There are birds, deer and somewhere

out in the estate, rare mammals like reintroduced beavers and

native red squirrels.

Hopefully one day soon, visitors will be able to see a new rare

mammal, the Pine Martin. And today... Dan will be getting

this habitat Pine Martin ready. Now, I'm one of the lucky few. I

used to work in the Scottish Highlands and would regularly

take people to see Pine Martins.

We used to tempt them out with peanut butter and jam

sandwiches. They look pristine and beautiful, but they have a

cheeky, naughty vibe and they're super charismatic. So what

exactly do these unusual tree-dwelling predators look

like? And how do you know when you've seen one?

Pine Martin they are part of the Mustelid family which are

related to weasels and stoats. So they look very similar

they're quite a long slender body about the size of the cat

with quite a big bushy tail.

They've got lovely little rounded ears and tend to be a

brown sometimes a light brown or a dark brown depending on the

season and then they've got this bright yellow bib so that that

chest is a really bright yellow colour which is a really good

identifier so that's how we tend to see them. They're arboreal

creatures so they live up in the trees that's where you'll find

the most phenomenal climbers.

Pine Martins conservation status is critically endangered in

England and Wales with most of the UK's population surviving

only in Scotland. Once widespread the animal suffered

catastrophic decline during the 18th the 19th centuries.

Pine Martins, the... All across England. So they got pushed out

of England about 400 years ago roughly. There was habitat loss

so as we cut down our trees, as we cleared our woodlands out or

as we moved our woodlands to just monoculture which didn't

have as much life in, it pushed the pine mountains out.

But they're also seen as a pest species. We used to control

them, we didn't like them because they will predate on a

lot of things so they were hunted and as well on top of

that. Their fur was used. It then pushed them out of the

country to the point where they were only really up in Scotland

in a few isolated populations in the Highlands.

But since the later part of the 20th century, conservation

efforts have helped bring Pine Martins back in pockets across

Britain.

But now there is a really good population in Wales where there

was a translocation done. There 's a really strong population in

Scotland and actually in the borders. They are heading down

from Scotland and have naturally travelled down into

Northumberland through Kielder and are spreading through

Northumberland at the moment.

Pine Martins' comeback is great news for the species. And there

's another reason their return to our forests is so important.

Pine Martins are amazing predators and play an important

role in naturally balancing ecosystems.

We sometimes call them as regulating predators. They'll

kind of take whatever's most dominant in that woodland which

means that they help balance out the diversity of species in the

woodland.

So that could be anything from sort of birds and eggs all the

way through to squirrels which is very helpful for us because

it'll help control the grey squirrels. They will hunt greys

and actually we've seen in other places that because of that they

push the greys out which then opens up spaces for the reds to

come in.

We do have to talk about that they will predate the reds but

red squirrels have co-evolved with Pine Martens so actually

the reds are smaller, they're quicker, they can get away more

easily and it's been seen that even red squirrels that haven't

lived alongside Pine Martens are still aware of them as a

predator and will react to their smell in the surrounding area.

So really exciting species for us. Could do massive benefits

for the biodiversity of our woodlands.

Pine Martins are nearby. They're making their way down from

Scotland and excitingly they've been spotted not far from

Wallington in Northumberland's lush forests.

Pine Martins and other animals travel through green corridors

like wooded areas and hedgerows. It's a bit like following a road

map to get from one area to the next. It's one of the reasons

joined up green spaces are so important. Dan's sure Wallington

will be the perfect home for the animals and he's constantly on

the lookout for their arrival.

So I've been working for the past year and a half trying to

get pine mounds under the estate, trying to encourage them

down through Northumberland using habitat improvements,

trying to get more spaces for them. Constantly looking for

pine mounds.

Today Dan's putting up pine marten boxes. It's time to head

out of the hide and into the open woodlands.

It's a heavy manual job fixing these sizeable wooden boxes into

trees but they'll provide the perfect home for Pine Martins

and their kits and the team will be able to survey the dens with

cameras for activity. First Dan gives us a quick tour of his

handmade Pine Martin mansion.

This is one of our Pine Martin den boxes. Imagine your standard

bird box in there and probably quadruple it in size.

Bigger chunkier thing than a bird box it doesn't have a hole

on the front instead the holes are on the back at the bottom so

that you can get straight from the tree into the box and then

on the inside it's split into The main chamber in the middle

and then the two little side channels which are kind of

imagine your front and back door to your house.

Pine Martins are phenomenal climbers so they can get up and

down trees really well. Normally in the wild they would stay in

cavities in old trees, they've got a delayed pregnancy, they'll

mate in the autumn and then the females will travel through the

the territory that they've got finding some good spots and then

The kits will then arrive late spring into the summer.

They'll use this box, the kits will stay in the box and the

females will bring food and then once they're old enough the kits

can then start exploring from these box which will be nice.

The morning birdsong is interrupted by the sound of Dan

's colleague Ranger Nick arriving to help put up the den

box.

This is one of the rangers turning up arriving in style on

the quad. So he's going to help put one of the boxes up.

So Nick has arrived carrying a ladder ready for the pine

mountain box. You all right Nick?

Yeah how's it going? I'm good. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

It's an uncomfortable start.

So I've just driven across a very muddy and wet field that is

covered in cow pats. Ladder is now covered in cow pats which

means I'm now covered in cow pats. Yeah I don't think I could

get any more covered in poo but we'll keep going. I'm covered

now so it doesn't matter.

It's the glamorous part of the job.

Yeah.

We rangers never let a bit... Of poo getting our way. So Dan and

Nick crack on with the task in hand.

First time you've put one of these up, isn't it? Are you

feeling all right about this?

Yeah, I'm feeling good. Feeling strong. Feeling ready. Hopefully

the thing doesn't come tumbling down on top of me.

Let's do this. Let's go. All right, let's do this.

So this is a large tree. It's got a number of sort of dead

branches at the lower down part. You've got essentially what

looks like a ladder going up the side of the tree so this is a

really good tree for a box.

Got a rope on here? Left over right, under, and then pull that

tight. And then right over left, under.

So I think that's good. It's secure, it's taking its own

weight. Are you happy with that Nick?

I'm happy with that, yeah.

So that's the box up in the tree, roughly two and a half

metre Mark tree. It's got some really lovely branches behind it

and it's held on fast. Nick's done a really good job of

getting it up there. Thank you. Nice and safe.

So putting these boxes up and doing this work is the first

step on this project. From there we hope that they arrive. After

that we'll be monitoring the Pine Martins themselves, seeing

how they're getting on, see how many kits we get and seeing how

biodiversity changes. Why? That 's the first time you say a Pine

Martin on the estate.

I think I'll scream. I actually do.

It's going to be a day of celebration. Yeah, absolutely.

Nine months pass. It's winter. The woods are bare and there's

no sign of Pine Martins yet. But there's excitement in the air

for what the new year might bring. It's been a year of

progress for Pine Martins. In the autumn, 19 Pine Martins were

reintroduced to Exmoor National Park in southern England.

While in the north, 16 more Pine Martins joined the population in

Cumbria, bringing the total to 29. And Pine Martins are

continuing to make their way down from Scotland. Through

Northumberland's woodland corridors. Will Wallington be

their next home?

To find out about an inspirational Pine Martin

success story, Dan calls a fellow conservationist who's

been at the forefront of Pine Martin recovery in the UK.

Dr Stephanie Johnston at the Vincent Wildlife Trust is a

project manager for the Martins on the Move programme. And she

has some exciting footage from a trail camera to share.

Hi Stephanie, how are you?

I'm good, how are you?

So can you tell me what you get up to?

I manage the team across 11 counties in Scotland, England

and Wales. And we are working to support the natural recovery of

pine mounds.

Stephanie and her fellow conservationists at the Vincent

Wildlife Trust have been working with communities, landowners and

organisations to help the recovery of Pine Martins. The

charity has set up monitoring hubs at six key locations across

Britain, including 250 den boxes to give Pine Martins a safe

home.

Den boxes are carefully monitored with trail cameras and

thermal imaging cameras, so conservationists like Stephanie

can gather information about Pine Martin activity and build a

picture of their recovery across Britain. And Stephanie's excited

to share some great footage from one of the monitoring hubs in

Wales, which reveals the secret lives of Pine Martins at the

location.

Yeah, so what you're seeing here is you're seeing the Martin

mother going inside the den box. And you can't see any kits at

all. But if you listen really carefully, you can hear the

little kits squeaking inside the den box.

And that's how we actually first discovered it. It's adorable. It

is. They sound so cute. This is how we actually first discovered

that there was kits in there. And we didn't actually see the

kits until another couple of weeks. So you can see this.

Footage here that's the mum taking the first kit down and

then a couple of hours later she removes the second kit and takes

it somewhere else and then about an hour and a half later this

third one here that's the third kit that's actually the biggest

kit that you can see there now and and she's moved them away

somewhere else and then in this next clip here you can see the

mum like a couple of weeks later bringing the kits back So she's

used this den box right throughout the breeding season.

It's such an important resource for them.

This final clip here. So this is now like into June. Those little

tiny kits have obviously grown up a bit now. And now this kit

is learning how to climb up this tree. And they're just so

uncoordinated when they first start learning to climb. But it

's totally adorable.

I mean, just that footage from one box. I can't get over how

lovely that footage is. It was such an incredible box this year

in our mid-wild site. We were all so excited when all that

footage came in. Oh man, very jealous.

Another vital part of conservation work is through

people like you and me getting involved. Citizen scientists.

Especially when it comes to working together to build big

pictures to help nature.

So you're calling citizen science, aren't you? You want

people to help yous out with monitoring the pine mountains.

Yes, Dan, we've got Martin Map. We are monitoring and mapping

the recovery of Pine Martins across Britain. And we're asking

anyone who is lucky enough to see a Pine Martin to get in

touch with us and let us know. So far, we have had 871 people

get in touch with their Pine Martin sightings, which has just

been absolutely phenomenal.

All of these people contributing, all of these

lucky, lucky people that have seen Pine Martins. It really is.

Allowing us to get a much bigger fuller picture of how well

Martins are recovering across Britain it is lovely to see that

positive success story does it look like they're moving through

north humbling much yes you'll be pleased to know they're

definitely on the way don't.

Worry i'll give you a call as soon as we see them please do

feeling inspired and hopeful Dan reflects on what Pine Martin's

recovery means for biodiversity and what it'll be like for him

to come into work one day and find that Pine Martins have

arrived.

It's really exciting that they're not too far away and

hopefully we'll be seeing them here soon. But I think the

biggest thing is going to be the biodiversity increase that we'll

see here at Wallington and across Northumberland and the

rest of the country really.

The positive for woodland ecology that we're going to see

with these predators coming down. Is going to make such a

difference to our woodlands. No, selfishly, I just really want to

see them. I can't wait to see a pine marten. I'm just having

thoughts of walking out of my office into the woods and just

having a pine marten there. And that's my dream.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Wild Tales. If you

want to find out more about Pine Martins citizen science and

reporter sighting, please head to pinemartins.UK. We'll of

course keep you updated when Dan sees his Pine Martins arrive at

Wallington. And do join us over on Instagram, at wildtalesnt.

See you next time.

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