15/06/2026
When down the woods, Mick got a big Surprise. A beautiful encounter last week.
Paul shared these details:
The pine marten (cat crainn in Irish) is a native Irish mammal and a member of the weasel family. Once on the brink of extinction, they are now successfully recolonizing woodlands across all 32 counties. They are legally protected, play a key role in suppressing invasive grey squirrels, and are known to occasionally den in roofs.
The pine marten is strictly protected under the Irish Wildlife Acts in the Republic of Ireland and the Wildlife (NI) Order in Northern Ireland. It is an offense to capture, injure, or intentionally disturb them, or to destroy their breeding/resting.
The "Kitting" Season: Females give birth and raise kits from March to July.
Pine martens are solitary animals.
Adults of both s*xes exclude other martens of the same s*x from their territory - thus in any one patch of ground, only one adult of each s*x will be present.
Breeding occurs once a year, with two or three kits born in spring.
Pregnant martens need to find a warm secure place in which to give birth, because the kits are born blind and hairless, and are wholly dependent on the mother for the first 40 days.
Natural dens are in hollow trees, rabbit burrows, squirrel dreys, tree roots and rock crevices.
Martens are slow reproducers, males mating in their third year, females in their second.
Diet is varied and includes berries, fruits, insects, frogs, birds, small mammals and carrion.
Although largely nocturnal, martens can be active during the day, especially in summer.
The Irish Parks & Wildlife say:
Public Distribution Maps: Pine martens (often called cat crainn or 'tree cats') are a legally protected native species. Because their populations are recovering, both the National Parks & Wildlife Service https://www.npws.ie and the National Biodiversity Data Centre https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie openly publish national distribution maps and datasets
Citizen Science: Conservation organizations use public participation to track the species. You can actively view public records or report your own sightings using the PineMarten.ie the https://pinemarten.ie/report-a-sighting/ Sighting System or directly through the Biodiversity Ireland Records Portal. https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/record/pine-martens #7/53.455/-8.016
*[]* We know the Pine martens are NOT nesting in the woods.
