One of Britain’s most elusive mammals, the pine marten (Martes martes) is highly secretive and found only in a couple of areas of the UK. Once widespread, the species has since declined drastically due mainly to habitat loss and heavy persecution in the 1800s. Nowadays, Northern Scotland remains a stronghold for the species with a population of around 3,500 individuals. We are incredibly lucky here at Aigas that we have several pine martens that regularly visit our hides, providing our guests with sightings that very few people are fortunate to see. Guests delight in recalling hide visits from the previous night at breakfast, for many of whom a pine marten sighting has been a wildlife goal for years.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of a hide visit, as you wait bundled up and in excited anticipation for the arrival of wildlife, the experience is almost meditative. Sitting in silence, the mind quietens and the rest of your senses are heightened in an effort to pick up any tell tale signs of an entering pine marten or badger. Connecting to nature through mindful watching and listening has been recognised as having health and wellbeing benefits across the world and is a practice in Japan known as Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. Add in the prospect of seeing some of the rarest animals in the UK up close, and a hide visit is both a relaxing and highly rewarding way to spend your evening.
It is coming up to the time of year when we will start to see young kits adventuring from their dens. Bounding along the ground, following the lead of their mother, these new kits will be developing their hunting skills as well as gaining vital knowledge that they will need if they are to become independent.
We rangers welcome these new arrivals as an opportunity to polish our identification skills, using the distinct bib pattern of each pine marten as a way of recognising and identifying new individuals. One of our academic placement students, Ben, updated our pine marten catalogue over the winter, creating posters for the hides with the characteristics of our regular visitors. This allows guests the opportunity to ID the individuals they see on their hide visits but also allows us to keep track of which individuals we are seeing frequently.
Since starting my year here at Aigas, seeing pine martens whilst on hide visits has been one of my many personal highlights; I feel immensely privileged to have been able to see such rare and charismatic creatures up close and I have equally enjoyed sharing this joy with guests as they experience this for the first time.
