# Pine Marten



## NickBenger

Hey, I'm pretty sure I saw a baby pine marten today on a river edge in the countryside near Bristol, England (South west)... Is it the right time of year?I google imaged pine martens and it pretty much looked identical however the one I saw was probably smaller than a Grey Squirrel.


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## Lucky Eddie

Probably not.

More likely a mink?


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## NickBenger

Lucky Eddie said:


> Probably not.
> 
> More likely a mink?


Just googled them that seems possible as there are definatly crayfish nearby and rabbits, they are smaller than pine marten right??and it was near a lot of water... Only thing that seems to be different is that the animal had a white mark on it's chest??Which obviously the Pine Marten has, can Mink's have this too?


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## Zak

Very very unlikely to be a pine marten, their known distribution for them ends around mid east Wales. Id go with mink or polecat. Id definitely go back again and see if you can get another sighting and obviously photos would be fantastic.


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## NickBenger

Zak said:


> Very very unlikely to be a pine marten, their known distribution for them ends around mid east Wales. Id go with mink or polecat. Id definitely go back again and see if you can get another sighting and obviously photos would be fantastic.


From photos I think it's more likely to be a mink than a polecat. It only looked about half the size of a grey squirrel though but it was a fair distance away from me.. I will go again, photos are out of the window really as I don't have a long distance lense but I might be able to video it!.. I have a really high zoom on my camera which has somewhat decent quality. I'll try get some footage soon... I guess it's dependant on whether I see it again.


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## jamesthornton

Stoats (and I imagine Weasels too?) will swim, but mink are definately bigger than a squirrell. NOT a Pine Marten.


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## NickBenger

jamesthornton said:


> Stoats (and I imagine Weasels too?) will swim, but mink are definately bigger than a squirrell. NOT a Pine Marten.


As I said it could of been young so could be any of what people have suggested, all of these animals have a similar look and as I was far away any are a possibility really... I will try to get footage, but I think I'd be very lucky to see it again. Especially as there was a buzzard on the prowl :whistling2: :lol2:


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## feorag

An adult pine marten is about the size of a small/medium cat, so reasonably bigger than half the size of a grey squirrel. The egg and the chicken thigh I put out for him will help you to guage the size. it is the season for young pine martens to be out and about, but whether that's what you saw I think would be doubtful, because a marten old enough to be out on its own would surely be bigger than half the size of a grey squirrel to be honest.

This is a photograph of one which visits the garden of our holiday cottage in Ardnamurchan sitting on the bird table.










Also, as you can see from this photo of a 7/8 week old baby stoat that I handreared a couple of years ago, the white extends right up to the throat, same as a Pine Marten and a Weasel.


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## NickBenger

feorag said:


> An adult pine marten is about the size of a small/medium cat, so reasonably bigger than half the size of a grey squirrel. The egg and the chicken thigh I put out for him will help you to guage the size. it is the season for young pine martens to be out and about, but whether that's what you saw I think would be doubtful, because a marten old enough to be out on its own would surely be bigger than half the size of a grey squirrel to be honest.
> 
> This is a photograph of one which visits the garden of our holiday cottage in Ardnamurchan sitting on the bird table.
> 
> image
> 
> Also, as you can see from this photo of a 7/8 week old baby stoat that I handreared a couple of years ago, the white extends right up to the throat, same as a Pine Marten and a Weasel.
> 
> image


Yeah quite possibly a stoat, definatly not the sort of size as that Pine Marten... I'm pretty convinced it isn't a pine marten now. I returned once but didn't see it again...


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## feorag

Keep your eyes peeled though, because it will probably stay in that territory so you might get a photograph one day.


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## NickBenger

feorag said:


> Keep your eyes peeled though, because it will probably stay in that territory so you might get a photograph one day.


Will do, I noticed there is a buzzard nest there too I imagine it would be easy game for the buzzard especially if it was visible to me for several minutes..


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