Fund set up to help Shropshire pine marten research
A fund has been set up to help research how many pine martens have crossed the Welsh border into Shropshire.
Earlier this week, the first pine marten spotted in England for 100 years was photographed in woods near Craven Arms.
Now the Shropshire Wildlife Trust has launched a fund to raise £1,000 so it can run a project to find out how many are in the county.
The Vincent Wildlife Trust says it will be reintroducing the creatures into woodland in Powys later this year to boost numbers.
They are known to exist in Wales in small numbers and there are more than 4,000 in Scotland, but they were thought to be extinct in England.
Stuart Edmunds, of Shropshire Wildlife Trust, said: "The first pine marten in England for 100 years has been confirmed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
"We need to urgently run a project to find out how many pine martens have crossed the border, so we can make sure they stay in Shropshire and help them to spread back across England.
"The donations we can raise through people power means we can use the money to get more funding. We are asking people to help if they can."
Mr Edmunds verified the sighting in Craven Arms and said he was delighted.
He said: "This is incredibly exciting news as pine martens were thought to be extinct in England and possibly even Wales and there is now a possibility that they have been living under our noses all this time.
"Pine martens are house-cat sized members of the stoat and weasel family and spend most of their time in trees, out of sight.
"I have been following up reports of sightings for five years and have been running the Shropshire Pine Marten Project since 2011.
"Most sightings have been confirmed as cases of mistaken identity, including cats, mink and even black squirrels."
You can donate by visiting: http://campaign.justgiving.com/charity/shropshire-wildlife/pinemarten
