Delight as Dartmoor pine martens have first young

PINE martens reintroduced to Dartmoor have produced their first young, with camera-trap footage capturing shots of kits scampering through woodland.

- EMILY BEAMENT

Conservationists behind the project to return pine martens to the south west of England after a 100-year absence have said they were “ecstatic” to see the reintroduced animals had successfully bred.

The discovery comes after 15 pine martens - eight females and seven males - were released at undisclosed Dartmoor locations in autumn 2024, as part of efforts to restore the species to the area.

Pine martens were once common in the South West, but were hit by the loss of their woodland habitat and by human persecution, conservationists said.

The Two Moors Pine Marten Project partnership, a collaboration of groups which is behind the reintroduction, and its local volunteers, have spent hundreds of hours tracking the movements of the cat-sized animals, installing den boxes for them and checking camera traps to see what they are up to.