March of the pine martens

The theory that pine martens prey selectively on grey squirrels and that this can lead to native red squirrels recolonising areas that they had been banished from by the greys is fairly well known.

It’s being investigated by researchers from NUI Galway, led by Dr Emma Sheehy, and there’s some preliminary evidence to support it.

Before about 1970 pine martens were extremely rare animals in this country, being largely confined to a few small pockets in the west, though with one significant population surviving in the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the Midlands. Their remarkable expansion since then appears to be because they got legal protection in 1970 and human persecution reduced dramatically.