Interview with Romeo Liekens about the pine marten
Romeo Liekens is a 'Master Biology: Biodiversity, Conservation and Restoration' student at the University of Antwerp. Under the guidance of supervisor Rudi Delvaux, he conducted research on the pine marten in Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide. We asked him some questions about this fascinating internship.
You chose the pine marten as a subject for your internship. What appealed to you to research this?
To be honest, I actually first wanted the subject of the crested newt (also supervised by Rudi Delvaux) but this subject was highly sought after. So I happened to come across a number of other subjects that had once been studied in the Grenspark. My eye soon fell on camera trap research of the pine marten. I had just happened to buy a camera trap myself and had already tried it out in my garden. To my surprise, I saw a stone marten appear on the images. I found it super fun to watch the footage on the computer each time after a few days and see if the stone marten came back into view. This prompted me to soon contact Rudi to see if the subject of pine marten could serve as an internship.
How can you recognise a pine marten?
A pine marten is about the size of a small cat with shorter legs and they have a dark snout. Its fur is chocolate brown in summer and slightly lighter brown in winter. A characteristic feature is the yellowish breast patch, which is different for each individual and therefore allows you to identify pine marten. The pine marten is often confused with the stone marten. The stone marten differs from the pine marten in that they have a white breast patch, they have slightly smaller ears, grey-brown fur and a light snout. To identify the pine marten, the breast patch (also known as a muzzle) should be as visible as possible. This was done by smearing the bait on a board, this board was attached to 2 posts, about 45 cm high so the pine marten had to stand on their tips to reach it making the muzzle clearly visible.
Where does the pine marten live?
Boomer marten can be found all over Eurasia, living mainly in forest areas. They are agile animals that are good climbers. They are mainly nocturnal and sleep during the day in tree dens or in rabbit or fox dens, for example.
How is the population doing and what are your findings in Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide?
Tree martens used to be hunted a lot. This made the species rare in Flanders and the Netherlands. It is therefore an endangered species. In recent years, it seems that the pine marten is on the rise. Even in my survey, more individuals were found and observations made than in the similar survey in 2018. This year, at 3 months, 124 sightings were made of 17 different pine marten. In the 2018 survey (by Sun), there were 47 sightings and 4 different individuals found. So this is a significant increase which is good news! Mothers with young were also observed on the images which is direct evidence that reproduction is taking place in the Grenspark. It is also important to mention here that in my survey at least one pine marten was found at every camera trap (14 in total), which was the case for only 8 of the 14 sites in the previous survey.
How do you lure a pine marten?
To lure the animals to the camera traps, various lures can be used. Valerian oil, a can of sardines and peanut butter are most commonly used. The 2018 study showed that peanut butter worked best, so I only used peanut butter for my study. I myself am not a big fan of peanut butter but the pine martins clearly love it!
Want to know more about the pine marten? Romeo's internship report can be found here.