Monday, 4 March 2019

Ghostly apparition or pine marten..... can you help to identify this animal?

These blog posts flit between North Northumberland and Kilchoan. Today it's a possible pine marten sighting .  Elliot the Red Squirrel Group trapper and ecologist has a blurred image on one of his camera traps, it might just be a pine marten.

Two years ago my friend Bob Burston saw a pine marten at the side of the road by the wood. He's a witness of impeachable integrity, a retired Anglican clergyman. Then I found what might have been pine marten scat in the wood last Autumn. Elliot's image is small and blurred, you have to scrutinise the image carefully to find it. Here it is:

At the foot of the tree trunk on the right you can see a pair of eyes and ears

Here it is again slightly enlarged , what is it?

The ears are rather long and erect so it could be a fox, it's unlikely to be a cat and pine marten is definitely a possibility. The image at the top left is for reference and a fox cub below.









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2 comments:

  1. Tom Bryson5 March 2019 at 01:19

    Since publishing this post I have been, "ticked" off for revealing the location, which has now been edited out. It has also been suggested that if it was a pine marten it would have climbed the tree to investigate and the date suggests a fox cub.

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  2. David10 March 2019 at 01:44

    Not a pine marten ... ears are too far back considering the camera angle and too close together considering the separation of the eyes. Here's a 'head on' shot of a pine marten in an IR camera trap: https://www.sunartdiaries.co.uk/2018/12/07/pine-marten/

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