Ever seen a Pine Marten in the wild?

[dromong]

Absolutely love these animals, but so rare to see one, the only one I ever saw was early one sunny summer morning, driving along the road beside Loch Maree in Wester Ross, came round a slight bend and there it was coming from the loch and crossed the road in front of me, heading into some big Scots pine's, what a wonderful sight. Anyone here ever had the good fortune to see one?.

[TorqueDirty]

Yup,

Used to live up in the Highlands and on day was out for a run up in the hills on a rarely used road. Came up a hill round a corner and there he was just sitting on a dry stone wall.

I stopped and we just stood there looking at each other for about 3 mins. I guess I was about 15 feet away. He then slowly climbed down the wall and trotted off and carried on with my run.

Seemed like a nice chap.

[Rushjob]

Yep, quite common here in the Auvergne.
One of the dogs chased one a couple of weeks ago.
Have to keep the chickens locked away at night as they have been known to empty a coop overnight.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

Loads of the little bds near me here in Southern Germany, so many so that you actually get insurance cover to deal with their love of eating the rubber parts on your car.

[nickwilcock]

Surely in South Germany the car-eating martens are 'Marder' - otherwise known as Stone Martens?

Rather more aggressive and larger (with bigger teeth) than the British Pine Marten?

[RedWhiteMonkey]

nickwilcock said:

Surely in South Germany the car-eating martens are 'Marder' - otherwise known as Stone Martens?

Rather more aggressive and larger (with bigger teeth) than the British Pine Marten?

You're probably right, I'm no expert on them.

[knotweed]

The last one I saw was eating something on the verge right by the side of the A82, just outside Spean Bridge. In the middle of the day, and the road was busy. I've seen a few, but that one surprised me

[Escort3500]

They're known to be very shy creatures, but when we rented a cottage on Eilean Shona (a small island on Loch Moidart) a few years ago they used to come on to the window sill every evening when we left out oatcakes with jam on them. We could go right up to the glass and they weren't fazed. Lovely creatures.

[Japveesix]

I've only seen them at the Rothiemurchus hide in the Cairngorms on an organised trip.

Very much worth it though. The hide is really nicely set up and in a lovely area and very close views of various things (martens, badgers, deer) are pretty much guaranteed.

Would love to see one actually in the wilds and unplanned.

[ooo000ooo]

Rented a house near Enniskillen last year and one sat on the fence for about 15 minutes soaking up the morning sun watching us.