Wildwood has mounted a "24 hour love patrol" to watch Britain's most dangerous & energetic lovers.

Conservationists and members of Wildwood's "24 hour Love Patrol" will wait with bated breath as a tunnel of love will bring together two pairs of pine martens.

The pine marten is a solitary and fiercely territorial creature and will often attack a potential mate. This behaviour is often made worse in captive situations, making the pine marten Britain's most dangerous lover.

Not only are pine martens Britain's most dangerous lovers but they are also its most energetic. These creatures mate 3 or 4 times a day for up to a staggering 2 hours at a time.

Efforts to breed them have been helped by the creation of a 'Tunnel of Love' allowing two of the Wildwood Trust's pine martens to start a romance, the barriers have been brought down over the past few days.

In an effort to mimic the ideal natural breeding environment the Kent-based wildlife charity have created the 'Tunnels of Love' which winds around both the female enclosures which was used last year for the third time. The system was a great success and two pine marten young were produced this year.

Wildwood's six pine martens each have to be kept in their own enclosure. They regard this as their territory and would defend it against intruding other pine martens of either sex. However, this summer two pairs of Wildwood's pine martens will be introduced to each other in the hope that they may breed in captivity.

Wildwood's Keepers are mounting a "24hr love patrol" to make sure the pine martens play fair and can separate them in an instant by the use of special sliding panels.

Leading the "24 Hour love patrol" is Wildwood Keeper, Karen Price:

"For the last week our male pine martens, have been investigating the tunnel. The females have has also been allowed to explore the tunnel, although not at the same time as the males!"

"We have learnt a lot over the past three years and this year we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will can repeat our success of last year with more pine marten young born at Wildwood."

The pine martens at Wildwood Trust are helping scientists to discover more about this secretive and endangered mammal in the forests of Ireland.

Our martens are testing out special tubes attached to tree branches, which will be baited with food and sticky tabs on which the martens leave their fur. DNA can be extracted from the hair follicles to help scientists at the Institute of Technology in Waterford to identify individual pine martens. Then they can estimate how many martens are using local forests, if there are differences in the areas of forest martens use and, if so, how to manage the rest of the forests to make them more hospitable for martens.

Pine Martens are just one of the huge range of British animals that can be seen at the Wildwood Discovery Park, for more information visit the website at www.wildwoodtrust.org or telephone 0871 7820087.

Wildwood's 'Wildlife Conservation Park' is an ideal day out for all the family where you can come 'nose to nose' with British Wildlife. Wildwood offers its members and visitors a truly inspirational way to learn about the natural history of Britain by actually seeing the wildlife that once lived here, like the wolf, beaver, red squirrel, wild boar and many more.

Wildwood is situated close to Canterbury, just off the A291 between Herne Bay and Canterbury.

PINE MARTEN BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Until about 1800, the pine marten was widespread throughout Britain, but today it is confined mainly to remote, forested areas in the north and west of Scotland, with a few small isolated populations surviving in north Wales and northern England. Its range reached a minimum at the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of habitat loss through deforestation and conversion of the land to agriculture, hunting for its fur and persecution for predation on game birds and chickens.

Since then, its range in Scotland has increased due to the expansion of commercial forestry plantations, and more recently, the regeneration of native woodlands. The pine marten prefers well-wooded areas with plenty of cover, but it lives in more open habitats as well. There is a captive breeding programme underway in Kent, and suggestions have been made for the pine marten to be reintroduced to parts of southern England.

CONSERVATION STATUS

The pine marten is listed as a protected species in Appendix III of the 1979 Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. It is also included in Annex V of the European Community's Habitat and Species Directive of 1992, as a species 'of Community interest whose taking in the wild and exploitation may be subject to management measures'.

In the UK, the pine marten is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, and it cannot be trapped, disturbed or sold without a specific licence from the relevant government conservation agency - in Scotland this is Scottish Natural Heritage. However, despite this legal protection, martens are still killed inadvertently each year by traps or poisoned bait set out for crows or foxes.

PHYSICAL CHARECTERISTICS

The pine marten adult is the size of a small domestic cat; it is slender with dense, chocolate-brown fur and a long bushy tail. It has a cream-coloured bib on the throat. The male measures on average 68 cm from nose to tip of tail. The female is slightly smaller. It is a member of the weasel family. In continental Europe another species, the beech or stone marten (Martes foina) is also found. In North America there are two species of the marten, the fisher (Martes pennanti) and the American marten (Martes American) which are very similar to the pine marten.

They move quickly along the ground, rarely emerging into open spaces. They are expert at climbing trees. They are mostly likely to be seen in the evening or at night, although they do come out during the daytime in summer months. They have an alert and timid presence.

Pine martens hunt in trees and on the ground. They like to roam in broad-leafed or conifer woodlands, and the destruction of these is a threat to the species. They find most of their food on the ground, and they hunt for small mammals, birds, insects, fungi, berries, birds' eggs and carrion (dead animals). Contrary to some opinions, they do not eat significant quantities of squirrels, red or grey. Pine martens avoid areas away from woodland or scrub, probably because other predators (especially foxes) can catch and kill them in the open.

Martens have territories that vary in size according to the availability of food. For males, the territory is about 10-25 square kilometers, and for females, about 5 - 15 kilometers. They are not aggressively territorial, some animals' territories overlapping those of others. Sometimes, however, they mark their trail with faeces ("scats"). Even in places where they are at their most numerous, pine martens are thin on the ground compared with other carnivores like foxes, stoats and badgers. They can be very playful and curious in their behaviour.

Pine martens breed only once a year. Mating takes place in July or August, but the female's pregnancy does not begin until January. (This delayed implantation also occurs in the badger.) A litter of about three babies is born in late March or April. At birth, the young are blind and covered in a coat of yellow-white hair which changes to grey, and then to brown as they mature. The babies spend at least six weeks in the den before they venture out, and the family stays together until they are six months old. They may live to 11 years old, but the normal lifespan is three to four years.