Pine Martin feeding.

[Geociao2011]

Hello, I have a couple of questions regarding Pine Martins. We occasionally have them in our garden and have heard that they like peanut butter (someone has to).
The peanut butter we smear onto a log in the evening is completely gone each morning, licked clean I think, as there is no trace. I was wondering if anyone knows of another garden visitor who may be eating the peanut butter, we have Red Squirrels throughout every day.
Also, is there anything else we could put out for Pine Martins to eat?

Any response welcome.

[pressld2]

Badgers are very fond of peanuts so it could be them.

Dave P.

[Geociao2011]

I don't think we have ever had Badgers, although they are definitely in the area. I will keep looking/feeding, thank you for the reply.

[Chris Hawes]

I stayed in a cottage along the Ardnamurchan Peninsula in November, and was somewhat optimistically hoping to attract pine martens to the garden during my stay. As such, I did a bit of research into what they liked to eat, and found various different suggestions. I tried them all, and to my great surprise had a pine marten visit every night.

From my week long experience/experiment, I discovered that they like the following food, in the following order of preference!

1) Jam sandwiches
2) Chicken wings (raw)
3) Eggs (raw)
4) Peanuts
5) Peanut butter

Hope this helps,

Chris

[Tringa]

If the peanut butter is at ground level then hedgehogs may take it. Is it possible the red squirrels get to it early in the morning?

Looks like you may have to sit up late and watch, though we did that once and at about 1:15am we spotted the visitor - a hedgehog!

Or get a trail camera to see what is visiting the food.

If you can get a photo do post it on here.

Dave

[bigdave60dog]

I spend a lot of time on The East end of the Ardnamurchan Penninsula. (Will be there this weekend in fact -weather permitting.) There plenty of Pine Martens there. The locals do use Peanut Butter to attract them to their Gardens. Unfortunately Rats also love Peanut Butter. I would expect to see Rats before anything else. Put the Butter well up in a tree. Rats will climb a bit but badgers and Hedgehogs won`t. You eliminate two suspects right away.
Dave

[BillyPilgrim]

As already suggested a trail camera would work wonders.

I used one in France last summer and it came up with something almost every night, including a Pine Marten!

I left some jam sandwiches to attract it but either wasn't hungry or didn't like French jam 'cos it didn't touch them.

You can see the results are here if you're interested -

Bungling Birder: June 2011

[FUDGEY]

I cant remember exactly how they do it, but researchers who are looking to see if an area has Pine Martins use plastic pipes against a tree that are closed of at the top end. They are wide enough for Martins to fit in and the food is smeared at the top end so that a Martin can just reach it. The likes of rats can not climb up as there is no grip and Squirrels cant reach. I would love to photograph these cracking looking mammals.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by BillyPilgrim

I left some jam sandwiches to attract it but either wasn't hungry or didn't like French jam 'cos it didn't touch them.

The French only do conserve

[The Woodman]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

I cant remember exactly how they do it, but researchers who are looking to see if an area has Pine Martins use plastic pipes against a tree that are closed of at the top end. They are wide enough for Martins to fit in and the food is smeared at the top end so that a Martin can just reach it. The likes of rats can not climb up as there is no grip and Squirrels cant reach. I would love to photograph these cracking looking mammals.

The tubes have two small very sticky patches attached to the inside of the bottom of the tube. When the Marten enters to get to the bait, hairs stick to the patches and left in situ when the Marten withdraws. These hairs are then recovered and sent for DNA which will then determine species and haplotype. The vertical slit allows the animal to climb on the natural tree bark.

These are tubes being prepared with chicken as bait and put up on a pine tree just before Christmas.





They are not too far from you Fudgey, in Glentrool.