Innovative mammal conservation
This video is a compilation of camera trap footage following the activity of one of the pine martens translocated from Scotland to Wales last autumn as part of our Pine Marten Recovery Project. All of the martens that came down to Wales were given nicknames by the team, normally by the people who drove them down at 3am, so some of them are questionable…. However, mostly they were referred to by their numbers (because our sleep deprived brains kept mixing up the names!) Miss Piggy, however, was one marten that truly lived up to her name and so it well and truly stuck! For her full story visit the blog.
Whilst we may be a little biased, some remote cameras set up by our Pine Marten Project Field Assistant, Josie Bridges, have captured some amazing pine marten footage.
We have had several cameras trained on a den box in which PM02 had chosen to give birth and one of the cameras caught some fabulous footage of one of the kits trying to take its first steps out of the box and then falling. Mum comes to the rescue, but is mid-lunch when it happens and she has a grey squirrel in her mouth! Mum drops the squirrel and rescues her wayward kit, carrying it back up the tree before returning for her squirrel. The kit is getting more and more adventurous and will soon be accompanying PM02. Our remote cameras will be there to follow its slow (and somewhat wobbly) footsteps out into the wider world!
An animal that tips the scales at just 6g and that flies silently at night poses challenges to those humans who attempt to study, conserve and capture it on film. But, this feat was achieved in the summer of 2014 when the Trust, and the lesser horseshoe bats it protects, were invited to participate in a film about Irish wildlife called Nature’s Keepers, the focus of which was to highlight the people who study and conserve the fauna and flora of the island and its surrounding waters. The final one hour film was recently screened on Australian television.
Director Cécile Favier and cameraman Frédéric Menissier of Films Concept Associés for Ushuaïa TV spent one day and night with Kate McAney learning about how the Trust undertakes its work of managing roosts for the lesser horseshoe, and the results can be seen in this video.
In the autumn of 2015, Vincent Wildlife Trust translocated 20 pine martens from Scotland to Wales as part of the Trust’s Pine Marten Recovery Project. This video is a compilation of footage filmed by our staff and from camera traps to give a snapshot of the martens’ journey and how they are settling into their new territory.
VWT staff have recently produced a video: Restoring the Pine Marten to England and Wales. The video highlights some of the research we have been carrying out to establish the present status of this rare British mammal, and explains why we believe that intervention is needed in order to prevent the pine marten from going extinct in England and Wales. Visit our project website for more information on pine marten recovery.
Camera trap footage capture during Vincent Wildlife Trusts search for the extremely rare Welsh pine marten, Bele’r Coed.
This is a compilation of footage from our camera traps, which we are using to try and detect the extremely rare Welsh pine marten. It is a celebration of biodiversity in Wales for Biodiversity Week 2013.
