January 2026 Talk
Our January talk entitled Pine Martens in the New Forest by Marcus Ward from specialist conveservation consultancy, Wild New Forest. This was an extremely interesting talk with lots of stunning local photographs and fascinating insights covering their return to the New Forest.
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In the UK, except for Scotland pine martens were considered extinct. Their managed reintroductionto other parts of scotland and wales, within the last 20years, led to these elusive mammals making a quiet comeback. However, they were not introduced to the New Forest. So,with recorded sightings close to Brockenhurst what was the explanation?
In his talk Marcus offered a few ideas.
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We discovered fascinating details about one of Britains most charismatic mammals . We learnt about their ecology, behaviour and the vital role they play in the woodlandecosystemas well as the latest research and the monitoring taking place in the forest.
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As part of our approach to tying talks with events. In June, Athol Hyland will lead a group of probus members on an expedition with Marcus to see if we can meet the pine martens in the forest.
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