{"id":2191948,"date":"2026-07-20T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2191948"},"modified":"2026-07-20T16:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:16:20","slug":"these-tree-climbing-ninjas-are-leaving-their-scottish-stronghold-and-spreading-into-england-and-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/these-tree-climbing-ninjas-are-leaving-their-scottish-stronghold-and-spreading-into-england-and-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"These tree-climbing ninjas are leaving their Scottish stronghold and spreading into England and Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pine martens are among the most elusive of all our woodland wildlife by virtue of being largely nocturnal, super-stealthy, tree-climbing ninjas.<\/p>\n<p>And yet sightings of these handsome\u00a0mammals are on the up \u2013 and in quite a big way.<\/p>\n<p>Partly, this is down to the popularity of putting out food to attract martens to gardens and holiday accommodation in the Scottish Highlands.<\/p>\n<p>Another key factor is the use of remote cameras that are capturing footage of the martens as they spread south from their Scottish stronghold into England and Wales, helped by a mixture of official reintroduction schemes and (widespread but currently illegal) unofficial releases.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe id=\"710262628\" title=\"Pine marten kits on camera - a historic milestone for Devon\u2019s wildlife!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5vM5Q1Lixl0?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.discoverwildlife.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-129157385_7=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-25=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Pine marten kits caught on camera in Devon, England, 2025 \u2013 a historic milestone for the county&#8217;s wildlife. Credit: Devon Wildlife Trust<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>July happens to be a busy month for\u00a0pine martens. It\u2019s their breeding season, when these normally solitary animals briefly tolerate company and seek out a mate (or sometimes several).<\/p>\n<p>In addition, many females are still looking after the young produced by their previous year\u2019s mating. The kits will have been born in the spring, so by July are three or four months old and starting to explore outside their mother\u2019s den.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/pine-marten-sightings-rising-uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Ben Hoare was first published by Discover Wildlife on 17 July 2026. Lead Image: Alphotographic\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>What You Can Do<\/h2>\n<p>Help to save wildlife by donating as little as $5 \u2013 It only takes a minute.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><script src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" defer><\/script><a class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #ededed; color: #333; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 13px; padding: 8px 10px 8px 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 4px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 #a5a5a5;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?amount=25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">DONATE NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=75&amp;resize=75&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=100&amp;resize=100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=150&amp;resize=150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=240&amp;resize=240&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=320&amp;resize=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=500&amp;resize=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=640&amp;resize=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=800&amp;resize=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1024&amp;resize=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1280&amp;resize=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1600&amp;resize=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-161632\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"28\" title=\"\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><em>Focusing on Wildlife supports <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">approved wildlife conservation organizations,<\/a> which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising.<\/em><i><\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pine martens are among the most elusive of all our woodland wildlife by virtue of being largely nocturnal, super-stealthy, tree-climbing ninjas. And yet sightings of these handsome\u00a0mammals are on the up \u2013 and in quite a big way. Partly, this is down to the popularity of putting out food to attract martens to gardens and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2206449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2026\/07\/Pine-marten.jpeg?w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[12190],"class_list":["post-2191948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-pine-martens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2206449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}