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WE DID IT!!! £1,500 raised in total to help find pine marten in Yorkshire.
Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen.
If you missed the campaign but still want to contribute, you can donate to the project here.
Keep up-to-date with the latest from the project on our website.
As seen on:
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UPDATE: We've teamed up with Earth and Nature Ltd to offer 10% off their online eco-shop on all donations over £15!
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The pine marten is the second-rarest carnivorous mammal in the UK, and has it's only stronghold in Scotland. It's only ever been pictured once in England, in Staffordshire, 2004.
A member of the mustelid family which includes badgers and otters, it has been called 'Scotland's most beautiful mammal'; and its easy to see why.
The pine marten is sighted fairly regularly across the North York Moors and a dead marten was actually discovered here in 1993. They are strongly believed to be living here but have never been proven to be. We want to find them.
This is a unique opportunity to help inform conservation and discover more about one of the UK's rarest mammals.
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Photo: Chas Moonie
We want to prove conclusively that these incredibly elusive animals are living right under our noses. We have already been monitoring small areas of North York Moors forests using camera traps, with the help and permission of the Forest Commission, for pine marten - but we need to look deeper. To do that, we need more camera traps.
And it's not just pine marten's that could turn up on the cameras - we've already uncovered a great variety of often unseen wildlife, such as roe deer and their kids, foxes, badgers, squirrels, many birds, rabbits...
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See the latest images from the forest on our recent sightings page...
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Pine marten photo: Willie Angus
More camera traps means more dedicated eyes in the forest, watching and waiting for pine marten, 24/7. This will greatly increase the chances of successfully picturing and proving that they are living here.
The NatureSpy team will place, monitor and collect the camera traps periodically.
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The full breakdown of funding is:
- 6 Bushnell Trail Cameras (model 119476) at approximately £204 each = £1224
- 6 8gb/16gb SD cards at approximately £10 each = £60
- 6 metre-long lengths of small chain (to secure cameras to trees and act as theft-deterrent) = £6
- 6 small padlocks = £17
- AA batteries = £19.68
- Indiegogo fee (4%) = £53.07
- Credit card/Paypal fees = £39.80
Total = £1419.55
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Photo: Nevispix
Finding pine marten in this part of the UK will be fantastic news. They are thought to be living here, but confirmation will mean:
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Focused conservation efforts where pine marten are found
- We can begin to estimate how many are living here
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Forest management can be adapted to benefit pine marten
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Raised awareness of the pine marten's plight and status
The launch of the project featured in The Northern Echo.
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We have been using camera traps for many years, developed high levels of expertise and have captured thousands of images of British wildlife. Our goal is to bring people closer to wildlife and make a connection, inspiring people to care about and want to protect the wild places the UK has left. This can be through showing people the unseen wildlife on a nature reserve to the hedgehog in the garden. We work with environmental organisations across the UK. We also run workshops on how camera traps work and can be used in conservation.
To find out more about what we do, please visit www.naturespy.org.
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Any contribution, big or small, is joyfully received and we heartily thank you for your support.
But even if you can't contribute financially, you can still help us (and we'll be very grateful!). Share this campaign via your social networks and help us create a buzz about pine marten and this project!
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Photo: Les & Liz Pearce
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A massive thank you to the many kind people who gave permission for their brilliant pine marten pictures to be used in this campaign. They are, in no particular order:
Chas Moonie, Les & Liz Pearce, Robert Bannister, Nevispix, Matt Jones, Ros King & Ali Rusbridge, Peter G W Jones, Roger Stewart, Sandra Standbridge, Willie Angus, Brian Dunning, Richard Winn, and Frank Greathead.
Also, a huge thank you to Linda Henshaw for providing her voice-over talent!
