Wildwood Trust: Superdad pine marten dies age 16

Unsubscribe

View in your browser

Superdad pine marten dies age 16

Keepers were left devastated at Wildwood Trust this week when famous pine marten Yorkie was found lifeless in his enclosure.

Star of a number of TV programmes and probably the most successful captive pine marten father in the world, Yorkie's playful antics won the hearts of the millions of people who visited him over his lifetime.

At 16 years old Yorkie is probably the oldest pine marten in the world, since they rarely live longer than 10 years in captivity and around 7-8 years in the wild. He was well and active up until his death, however, he is greatly missed and the charity has lost the most successful male pine marten ever used in their world-renowned breeding programme.

The fact that Yorkie reached such a great age shows the dedication of Wildwood's keeper team and the expert knowledge they acquired in their care and husbandry.

Yorkie fathered 12 kits, as part of Wildwood's unique pine marten breeding programme and his offspring will go on to repopulate Kent with pine martens. Persecuted to extinction in Kent well over 100 years ago, the loss of pine martens are also linked to the gradual loss of red squirrels in the region. It is hoped that a future reintroduction programme could allow red squirrels to come back to Kent, and both projects are being actively perused.

Click here to watch a video of Yorkie

Pine martens are solitary creatures and notoriously fierce when mating, but Yorkie was always sensitive, one of the reasons that Wildwood's pine marten breeding programme became such a success.

Yorkie was born at Welsh Mountain Zoo in 2003 and came to Wildwood same year.

As pine martens are very hard to breed in captivity, the right surroundings are essential. Ironically, as Yorkie dies, Wildwood are in the middle of a big appeal, to ensure we can expand our breeding centre for the pine marten.

With only one male pine marten left now, it is even more essential, that our work continues to protect thes magnificent animnals.

_______________

Pine marten keeper Jon Forde said:

''We found him curled up in bed, almost with a smile on his face. He just had so much attitude and it was inspirational to see him climbing and charging around right until the end''.

*****ENDS*****

CONTACT

Video of Yorkie: https://youtu.be/-WnBxMW57VU

Video of some of Yorkie's kits : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIbjoIyPzM4

Julie Luna Bayer: julie@wildwoodtrust.org or 01227 209618 or 07453 497086

Peter Smith: peter@wildwoodtrust.org or 07986 828229

FOLLOW US

Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewildwoodtrust

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thewildwoodtrust

ABOUT WILDWOOD

Wildwood Trust opened in 1999 as a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife, and was established as a registered charity in 2002.
Wildwood is Kent's best British wildlife park. Home to over 200 native animals, past and present and set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland where visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers plus many more.
As one of the leading British animal conservation charities in the UK, Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain's most threatened wildlife. Wildwood Trust have taken part in many ground-breaking conservation programmes to date, which include, saving the water vole, using wild horses to help restore Kent's most precious nature reserves, bringing the extinct European beaver back to Britain and returning the hazel dormouse & red squirrel to areas where they have been made extinct.