Shropshire Star

A century after they were feared extinct - watch the Shropshire pine martens

Captivating video footage of England's only confirmed population of pine martens has been captured in Shropshire – well over a century after they were feared extinct.

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The video suggests the elusive cat-sized member of the stoat and weasel family may have been living in the wooded Shropshire hills for years undiscovered.

Now scientists are to study the mammals' DNA in an effort to establish if the family of at least five martens was brought into Shropshire illegally, or if the species has lived in the county for decades or longer.

Stuart Edmunds, of Shropshire Wildlife Trust, managed to capture images of one of the elusive mammals, which are mainly nocturnal, in daylight on video.

Last year amateur wildlife recorder Dave Pearce, took two photographs of the dark brown creature thought to be extinct in a wood in south-west Shropshire and the new video is now conclusive proof of their existence.

The exact location is being kept secret but it is thought to be close to the Welsh borderabout 30 miles from where a pine marten killed on a Welsh road was found in 2012.

Stuart said: "The last record of pine marten in Shropshire dates back to 1893.

"We were lucky to capture video footage because the animals are nocturnal but we have evidence of at least five of them here thanks to sensor cameras that pick up on movement – there could be three times that number.

"Now we are taking DNA samples of pine marten hair and faeces to see where they originate from and if they have been living here in Shropshire all along."

He said the Shropshire hills are ideal territory for pine martens because there is plenty of forest cover and low human population density. The animals spend most of their active time in trees during twilight hours and at night, so are very difficult to see.

There is a thriving population of at least 4,000 pine martens in Scotland and they are known to exist in Wales only in small, unsustainable numbers in Snowdonia and Mid Wales.

The video has shown yesterday during a talk by Stuart about the Shropshire Pine Martens at the Methodist Church Hall in Oswestry.

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