PINING FOR THE WEST COUNTRY
Once widespread across Great Britain, the pine marten Martes martes, a handsome arboreal relative of weasels and stoats, was virtually wiped out by hunting and habitat destruction, so that by the end of the 1800s it was seemingly confined wholly to Scotland, mostly the Highlands (though there is some evidence that a few small relict populations may have persisted in parts of central and southern England). Thanks to modern-day legal protection, however, its numbers have increased again, resulting in its distribution range expanding southward back into England and Wales, by natural means as well as by official (and also some unofficial?) reintroductions. Consequently, this species now occurs in northern England, Hampshire, Shropshire, and mid-Wales; on 3 July 2022, there was even a confirmed, ZSL-filmed sighting…
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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 452