AS A FOLLOW-ON from my recent article about filming badgers with my trail-cam in Clackmannanshire, the latest retrieval of my sensor-operated camera revealed a pine marten on one of the videos.

It was a most interesting piece of film, especially since the pine marten actually entered one of the entrances of the badger sett.

On further examination of the camera, I found exactly same thing happened a couple of nights later.

It’s not as if this sett entrance was unoccupied, as I had about another 120 video clips of badgers going in and out on a nightly basis.

It is all a bit of mystery – unless, of course, there were tiny cubs underground, and the marten was hoping they were lying unattended.

A very risky ploy in my view, as the mother badger would be a most fearsome foe for the marten.

As a child, I recall the pine marten being dubbed as one of Scotland’s rarest mammals, confined to remote forests and mountainside in the far north-west of Scotland.

It is amazing that they have expanded their range so quickly in recent decades and are now well-established in the Wee County and many other parts of central Scotland.

The reason for this population boom is principally down to reduced persecution. At one time their warm-brown pelts were highly prized for the fur trade and they were also trapped relentlessly on hunting estates to protect game birds. But the pine marten is now a protected animal and has enjoyed a considerable turnaround ever since.

They are very agile creatures and great climbers, being able to scuttle up trees with ease where they will investigate holes for nesting birds, or even pursue squirrels.

With a new predator on the scene in the woods of Clackmannanshire, it will be fascinating to see how the growing number of pine martens will impact upon the populations of other creatures.

@BroomfieldKeith