The Many Species of Coed Y Brenin.

Bele'r Coed, the Pine Marten: A Tale of Poo...

Some time back in 2017, on my regular wanders in Coed Y Brenin, I began to notice some unfamiliar poo. This probably requires a bit of explanation...

above: initially unfamilair poo¹.

On the NRW (Natural Resources Wales) tracks its not that unusual to find the occasional deposit of dog muck and similarly on the footpaths but these poos were different, having the odd twists and constrictions of a mustelid². The “proper” term for their dung is a scat, though in the end its just a bit of poo...Intrigued, I began to take photographs (I know, a bit weird but we haven't got a television).

I was working at the Signs' Workshop at the time and one morning got a phone call from Lyn, my wife, to tell me she'd seen a vehicle going up the NRW track that borders our fields. Her rural curiosity was piqued as rather than the familiar NRW logo this one was labelled The Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT). I had a good look on the net while at work (don’t tell the boss…) and found they were involved in reintroducing Pine Martens in Mid Wales.

Now I was intrigued and finding a contact email on their web site, sent them a message explaining that we lived in Coed Y Brenin, had seen their vehicle and wondered if we could help at all. I had a very friendly email back and after a brief exchange, arranged a meeting at our place.

The meeting was excellent; two very friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgable young folk turned up, Josie, a worker for the VWT and a volunteer. Over a number of cuppas they shared pine marten movies, stories, pictures of the Martens' poo, I mean scats and a load of useful knowledge.

above: Morag, pine marten 13, still wearing her tracking collar and her kit, looking all innocence, butter wouldn’t melt etc. Still from the VWT trap camera in Coed Y Brenin.

Pine martens (martes martes) are beautiful animals, curious and playful. One great movie Josie showed us was recorded at a trap camera set up very near us that showed pine marten no. 13, who had been christened Morag, with her kit who had been born in Coed Y Brenin. Most of the pictures of Pine Martens I've used here are screen grabs from that movie.

The tale began in Scotland where in some places there is an apparent surplus of pine martens (I'm not sure how you would define a surplus of pine martens). I'd already had an inkling about this as my step-mother's sister who lives on the west coast had sent me a great picture of a marten perched on their mailbox- I was extremely jealous!

above: pine marten checking the mail, or about to deposit a scat on the top…Picture by Susie.

The VWT had been tasked with trapping some of them and bringing them down to Cymru to release in Ceredigion, in the forestry near Devil's Bridge. Each marten had a number and usually got a suitably Cymric name on the way down. They were also fitted with radio tracking collars to allow their movements to be monitored. It was the tracking collars that led VWT to follow the epic wanderings of several of the martens, including Morag, as they made their way up north. A male, Bryn, went even further north, up to Llyn Brenig which lies between Conway and Denbigh, a distance of about 70 miles.

Morag seemed happy to settle down in Coed Y Brenin, a mere fifty mile trek, at least long enough to have her kit. Martens demonstrate delayed implantation so its not clear whether she was pregnant when she came down from Scotland, or got pregnant somewhere in Cymru. No matter, she produced a lovely, boisterous kit who, in the movie, seems far more intent on play than food, a pattern familiar in most youngsters...

Josie also showed us pictures of pine marten scats (always good to find another voyeur, makes you think its quite normal...) and gave me some useful clues as to distinguishing those of the pine marten from other mustelids, as follows:

Pine martens tend to follow paths and tracks and will usually deposit their scats on them. The other mustelids are more off-piste wanderers and scat pretty much anywhere on their travels (save for badgers who have their own latrines- very civilised). The pine marten will also often choose a prominent location on the path or track, like a stump or even a rock, as the photo demonstrates. In fact I do wonder whether there is a humorous element involved here or perhaps a challenge- I wonder if I can get it right up there?

above: this rock, having fallen off a quarry lorry, was the only one on the track for hundreds of metres in either direction and proved irresistible. The shape of the scast will vary depending upon the current diet.

Pine martens are more omnivorous than the other mustelids and have a fondness for fruit (and peanut butter sandwiches, which is one of the ways to encourage them to use feeding stations). So the contents of the scat can give a very clear indication that it is that of a marten. I have found scats containing the stones from wild cherry (gean), damson and slough (plant them to find out which- they usually germinate very quickly after going through a marten's digestive system!) and in blackberry time I've found scats containing a large proportion of bramble seed.

above: this week I have mainly been eating blackberries.

Their diet also very strongly influences the smell. Generally, the scats of mustelids smell disgusting, foul as in putrid, rotting, decayed, bleaghh! Get a tiny bit of say a pole cat scat on the end of a stick and take a very careful, very small sniff, (don't get any on your nose!). Horrible, isn’t it? It triggers a very human disgust reaction.

Do the same with a pine Marten scat and OK, you may well whisk the stick away the first time but then you'll have another sniff and even another. Yes, its strong but it lacks the foul, putrid stench of long dead things. People usually describe the smell as very musky and sweet but there's something of skunk in it, both the North American beasty's smell and that of the strong cannabis named after it. The jar of smelly paste that VWT gave us as bait to set up our feed station had the same whiff.

A dog can be an extremely useful assistant in scat identification. Loyal subscribers will have noticed the shaggy beast, Cadi, who accompanies me and is often seen posing in my pictures to give some sense of scale (she is well practised in modelling and will sit patiently for five or ten minutes while I search for the perfect angle and is happy to work for pieces of dry cat food). Her responses to various scats are very clear indications of whose done what.

above: an old scat showing a more carniverous diet, probably bones of bank voles, the martens favoured prey.

Scats produced by pole cat, stoat, weasel, badger etc. or the non mustelid hedgehog smell so bad that she will either want to eat them or roll in them³.

As an example of the difference in smell, Cadi will be merrily trotting down a path in front of me when suddenly she'll stop, put her nose up, scenting, then back track a dozen steps, veer off the path for the same distance and there, hidden in undergrowth, yummy, pole cat scat....A pine marten scat on the other hand, laid in a prominent position, right in the middle of a track or path and she'll walk straight past it. If I call her back and point it out she'll just give it a vague sniff then wander on.

We did set up a pine marten feeding station here but sadly, failed to attract Morag- probably the lure of peanut butter sandwiches at her official station proved too much. All we captured with the trap camera were several hundred short clips of one mouse, two mice or three mice gradually diminishing the bait to practically nothing during the night and then another hundred or so clips of a robin polishing the rest off in the morning. We did get a couple of shots of a jay raiding and one night there's the shadowy form of a deer in the middle distance. Closest we got to possibly Morag was a vague shadow on a wet night that turns to look directly at the trap camera so the eyes flash mysteriously in the infra red.

above: Morag’s attempts to quietly eat peanut butter sandwiches continually interupted by her kits desire to play, play, play!

Another indication of the presence of pine martens is the reduction in number and size of grey squirrels. The martens are excellent hunters, wreaking slaughter amongst the greys, catching all the fat ones first. The scrawny ones that we still occasionally see around here are more like rats now and display a noticable paranoia. This means good news for areas where red squirrels are under threat and hopefully opens up opportunities for their return in areas where they have disappeared, like Coed Y Brenin, (back in the 1980s we did very occasionally (twice) see reds near us but nothing since).

Me and Cadi still find pine marten scats but they are not as common. Whether these are those of Morag, her kit or another marten is unknown but its good to see them. The VWT obviously had a bit of money to set up the project and were able to pay for DNA testing of the scats and so identified individual martens even after the batteries had died on the radio tracking collars.

above: forget the peanut butter sandwich! Play, play, play!

Incidentally, Josie did manage to successfully trap and re-release Morag to remove the radio collar. Hopefully she is still around and who knows, perhaps had more kits by now. In my perhaps not so humble opinion, they are the most beautiful of the mustelids and there are some great pictures and short videos of them in action on the VWT web site, with links below.

Thanks for reading. As always, comments are very welcome. Next up will be a few episodes of Konsk. Till then, take care and hwyl! Chris.

The Vincent Wildlife Trust website provides information about their various re-introduction programmes.

There’s specific details of the marten projects in Cymru, with some good videos including a brief appearance of Morag and her kit on their feeding stump in Coed Y Brenin.

And there’s more very entertaining pine marten videos from VWT including a kit falling out of nesting box (don't worry, they bounce!) and mum retrieving it. Also a mother returning with a freshly killed grey squirrel for her voracious brood.

1. This is one of the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s scat identification pictures that Josie kindly gave us. Note the twists and constrictions though these will vary considerably due to the martens diet which will change according to what is available during the year. Also, its on something…they like a prominent location.

2. There are seven mustelid species in Britain: weasel, stoat, American mink, polecat, pine marten, otter and badger. The mink is of course considered non-native, escapees from old mink farms or released by well-meaning but ignorant animal activists. They have caused considerable havoc to the native ecosystem.

3. The rolling in them always seems to occur right at the end of a walk when I have relaxed my vigilance and taken my eyes off her for a moment, only to find her getting down on one shoulder and really scrubbing it in. This means fifteen minutes at home, outside, with rubber gloves, a hosepipe and a disgruntled dog (I'm aware that the previous sentence is open to a number of interpretations, some of which are probably illegal. Let me be clear, I just wash her).