Pine Marten infra red trail cam

We get two types of Marten around the house, the Pine marten (Martes martes) and the Beech Marten (Martes foina); the one in my attic is the Beech Marten. I’ve been trying for years to get a photo of a Pine Marten – I often see them in the forest but by the time I’ve got my camera out of its case they’ve scarpered. I’ve got lots of footage of a dark blur disappearing into the distance.

I’m really getting into the setting of the trail cam in different locations. Locals here often ask me why I don’t hunt (I did when I was young but don’t anymore). For me, taking photos of animals is equivalent to shooting them except they get to live another day. Using a trail cam is very similar to setting a trap as it requires studying the environment and discerning tracks and other information – plus it doesn’t harm the animal. Some times all the signs are there – for example, last night I had the trail cam set up in a perfect wild boar latrine in the forest next to a dry creek bed, surrounded by game trails and wallows, but I caught nothing. The boar must have moved to a different location, for whatever reason. I ended up covered head to toe in bites, from ants, mosquitoes, fleas or some other bug, and both setting the camera up and retrieving it was a very nerve wracking experience because i didn’t know if a large boar would charge me from behind, but it’s quite an addictive adrenaline-filled activity. I’m already planning where to put it tonight – a few kilometres walk across meadow and then deep into the bush, choosing which height to set it at depending on what game i want to ‘trap’… good fun.