Martens, Squirrels & ForestryThe return of the pine marten to lowland England and Wales

摘要

Once one of the commonest small predators found in British forests the pine marten (Martes martes) was reduced to relict populations, surviving in numbers only in the far north of Scotland and the rocky fastnesses of western Ireland. They had been trapped for their pelts for many centuries, but this placed a value on the living animals. Their eradication from the British landscape resulted from a combination of deforestation, advances in gun design, and the new found passion for shooting pheasant andgrouse.This combination led to their extermination from the majority of their range from Kent to Cumbria. 'Pine' marten is a reflection of this catastrophic contraction in range, named after they were largely confined to the pinewoods of Scotland. As late as the 1820s they were far more widespread. The brothers of Jane Austen were paid to chase the 'marten cats' out of the trees where they had been treed by the local hunt near Basingstoke, spoiling the chase by distracting the hounds! (Tomalin, 1997).