Red Squirrel Pine Marten - who would have thought....

[Khriss]

Glad this has been shown....

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-43317564/red-squirrels-boosted-by-pine-martens

 

Loved the Reds in Scotland - this should happen below the Border K

[Will Heal]

That’s great! Saw my first red squirrel for years on Anglesey last month, I used to see them in the Lake District when I was at Newton Rigg. Are there still so many about up there?

[Macpherson]

Yep, heard about this a while ago... up where I am I recon there's a general decline in the amount of people who see every living thing as vermin.. ie shoot or trap every thing  that moves... so we're noticing an increase in a diversity of species in the locality...... it's real interesting that this has happened over about 10 years since some particular folk have moved on!!

I recon very few determined people can do a vast amount  of damage to the natural environment 

 

Loads of pine martens alive now, as opposed dead hanging on a fence, as habits change, folk die or just get passed it ....I'm seeing  more balance in the country side around me in most  species......except the salmon .....unfortunately.

 

There's no doubt that in many parts of the country the greys are causing severe damage  to  mature deciduous trees by their territorial marking causing many to rot from the top down. 

It was suggested at the time that it might be an idea to introduce martens to woodlands down south in an attempt to control the squirrels, I did think that it was a plan.... but never heard any more about it.

Cheers

[Mick Dempsey]

We have pine martens here (Charente, France) regardéd as a bit of a pest because they move into houses and cause damage. Great to see nevertheless

 

I have always thought that a comeback across the whole of the UK would be a good thing.

 

I don’t know why they don’t spread south.

 

But I’m not a pine marten so I can’t answer that.

 

 

[drinksloe]

The massive problem/flaw with Pine martins is they just don't eat grey squirrels, they will eat every other thing too, not much is safe from them really.

Like a stoat on steroids for ur ground nesting birds or rabbits and can still climb trees to decimate ur more normal nesting birds too.

If u look at most bird counts/surveys etc the birds under the most pressure/biggest declines are ur typical 'prey' species (waders, song birds and farmland/garden birds) while most predators are thriving wether corvid, BoP or even badgers and pet cats.

 

The last thing most wildlife needs is more predators trying to kill and eat it

 

macpherson have u noticed a decline in ur garden birds or waders etc in the last 10yrs also??

 

I hate to say it (esp as someone invloved with local red squirrel conservation) but there screwed,

i'm lucky enough to live in a hotspot (got about 12 in and around my garden) but i reckon with 5-10 years will be very lucky to have many/any left.

And if squirrel pox gets into the central belt scottish greys they will move north at an alarming rate

[Mick Dempsey]

Just now, drinksloe said:

The massive problem/flaw with Pine martins is they just don't eat grey squirrels, they will eat every other thing too, not much is safe from them really.

Like a stoat on steroids for ur ground nesting birds or rabbits and can still climb trees to decimate ur more normal nesting birds too.

If u look at most bird counts/surveys etc the birds under the most pressure/biggest declines are ur typical 'prey' species (waders, song birds and farmland/garden birds) while most predators are thriving wether corvid, BoP or even badgers and pet cats.

 

The last thing most wildlife needs is more predators trying to kill and eat it

 

macpherson have u noticed a decline in ur garden birds or waders etc in the last 10yrs also??

 

I hate to say it (esp as someone invloved with local red squirrel conservation) but there screwed,

i'm lucky enough to live in a hotspot (got about 12 in and around my garden) but i reckon with 5-10 years will be very lucky to have many/any left.

And if squirrel pox gets into the central belt scottish greys they will move north at an alarming rate

And yet here we have martens, polecats, stoats and weasels, hen harriers, hobbys and a myriad of other predators but no shortage of songbirds or other prey species.

[drinksloe]

It also doesn't mean ur wrong  thou mick

Althou i really do hope i'm wrong with my red squirrel predication, but i'd never heard of grey's in my valley till 6 yrs ago now catching them in small numbers all throu the valley (and in quite hiugh numbers in the low ground, know of 1 lad catching 100's each year, which considering 6 years ago was catching none is quite worrying)

 

In my area got bugger all ground nesting birds left.

U only have to look at the BTO census returns to see declines of 60-80% in many species over last 30 or so years

Plenty of sound scierntific advice/research backs it up, even the rspb carry out vermin control on many reserves althou they'd never like to admit it.

On 1 the wader nesting success went up by 300%

 

Getting the balance is the hard thing

[silky fox]

Hadn't seen one in over thirty years.Saw five in one morning...up in Speyside.

[Macpherson]

27 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

macpherson have u noticed a decline in ur garden birds or waders etc in the last 10yrs also??

Not really plenty of variety of birds but I'm no expert so I can't comment on which ground nesting species are missing , but on the whole I agree with your post.

 

 As I see it man has for a long time been the main player in upsetting the balance, as I see it for decades now over much of the country diversity of habitat has been massively lost to one alien monoculture under who's canopy there's an oppressive sterile environment where sfa but the midge can live.

 

I realise that many of you make your living from Sitka spruce and I'm not wanting to have a go about that....but I don't like anything about the soggy weeds and wish the planted trees were more diverse....pine would be great, and it's a great pity what's happening to the larch.

 

Interestingly when I'm in Glasgow there are very few small garden birds compared to when I was young....they don't stand chance..... uncontrolled numbers of magpies, crows etc  and again I'd put much of the blame for that with man and his filthy rubbish habits which has allowed there populations to grow out of all proportion.

 

I guess it's a complicated picture which will vary greatly from area to area and I can see that introducing martens anywhere could well spell disaster for whatever's already there... but for the sake of the trees in mature woodlands countrywide the greys need to be controlled for sure.  Squirrel pie anyone,   Cheers.

[Khriss]

I know there would be concerns but as domestic cats decimate songbirds in the UK every year , the Pine Marten introduction ( from the article ) would not be as harsh on wildlife as previously thought . However species introduction is fraught - look at those lil cute hedgehogs.... K