On June 28th the Vincent Wildlife Trust organized a survey of Brechfa Forest for the rare and elusive pine marten. There have been sporadic records over a number of years for this mammal in Brechfa but very little is known about its presence here.

Pine martens were once persecuted as a pest species by farmers and gamekeepers. The marten’s main diet is wide ranging – small mammals, amphibians, birds and insects as well as berries and carrion.

Brechfa’s forest habitat should be good for pine martens, with areas of mature forest and steep-sided rocky valleys. Excellent climbers, martens make dens in hollow trees, rock faces or squirrel dreys.

Today surveying for elusive mammals like pine martens has been made much easier by the development of DNA technology that enables animals to be identified from samples of their scats (faeces). So by collecting likely samples, the presence of martens in forests can be detected.

Over 20 volunteers turned out on the day to help VWT wit their survey. This enabled a large area of forest to be covered by looking for likely scats deposited along the sides of the forest tracks. These were collected for testing and the resulted will be reported on as soon as possible. Seventy-eight kilometres of track were surveyed and a total of 67 scats collected. Will any of these be pine marten? Surveys of two other forests in Wales this year have drawn a blank so let’s hope Brechfa proves successful!

Some volunteers who knew the forest well commented on the general lack of mammal signs found during the day. There were few trails cutting acrossthe tracks, footprints and reduced numbers of scats found. Whether this reflects forestmanagement, increased fox control or another factor is unknown.