Words & Photos by Jim Duncan
The shy and elusive pine marten, one of Britain’s rarest mammals has been seen and photographed in Balloch Castle Country Park.
This woodland creature, almost hunted to extinction was given full legal protection in 1988.
They are similar in size to a domestic cat with slim bodies, brown fur, a distinctive cream bib on their throats, long, bushy tails and prominent rounded ears.
Pine martens are primarily nocturnal and will emerge before dusk and sometimes around dawn, especially in the summer months when the nights are shorter and young kits place more demands on foraging adults.
Females usually give birth to 3-5 kits in the spring having delayed conception from the previous year.
Males do not help raise the young but will defend the territory against other males who otherwise might kill their offspring.
Young will remain with their mother for only a few months before being driven out of her territory to fend for themselves.
Like many predators most kits will not survive through their first winter, those that do though can live on to 10 years or more.
Pine martens are agile treetop hunters. They can leap from tree to tree in pursuit of squirrels.
And it is helping our native red squirrel take back their habitats from the invading grey squirrel, finding it difficult to catch the smaller, lighter red but able to keep up with the heavier, less nimble grey makes it the perfect ally in the fight to reduce grey squirrel populations.
In 2018 a pine marten was seen near the stables in Balloch Castle Country Park and possibly the same individual was seen in a private garden near Drumkinnon Gate.
Then in 2023 a local resident whose house backs on to the park set up a motion activated camera trap in her garden as her peanut feeder was attracting a number of red squirrels and was
delighted to see recorded pictures of the rare pine marten enjoying the free food!
Balloch Castle Country Park has perfect habitat for the pine marten as the native woodland of mixed broadleaved of oak-ash in the 217 acre park is ideal, as pine martens favour well-wooded areas with plenty of cover to make their dens and breeding nests in tree hollows and abandoned squirrel dreys.
So next time you visit the park be sure to keep a lookout for our most secretive Scottish icon, the pine marten.