Baby pine marten who lost siblings rescued from bin

A two-week-old pine marten found in a bin is now being cared for at a rescue centre.

The tiny mammal, which is rare in the UK, was found in Powys, Wales, with two siblings who did not survive. It is now being cared for at Vale Wildlife Hospital in Gloucestershire.

Staff at the rescue centre named him Martin, after a member of staff who identified him as a pine marten.

Wildlife assistant Laura Pawley, who has been looking after the kit until he is ready to be released into the wild, said it was "quite beautiful watching him grow" and all the more special because she had never seen a pine marten before.

Weighing just over 100g, Martin cannot currently hear or see, has no teeth, and has to be fed every two hours from 06:00 BST to 00:00.

When he was first discovered, it was thought he might be a hedgehog cub, but Vale Wildlife Hospital enlisted the help of rescue centres in Scotland to confirm he was a pine marten and gather advice on how best to look after them.

It is not until they are about five weeks old that pine martens' teeth come through and they open their eyes.

That is when Martin will be given solid food and the freedom of an outside enclosure where he can learn to climb, find nesting sites and forage for his own food.

Pawley said it had been "amazing but tiring" looking after Martin, who is likely to be reintroduced into the wild in Wales in August, hopefully where his mother would have been.

"We'll work with the local wildlife trust because they've often done some of the re-introductions so they'll know the areas where pine martens are found," she said.

"You know that if there are pine martens there, it's a nice healthy site, they'll be prey and areas for him to create little nests - and hopefully thrive."

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