Rare curlews and martens are leaving Dartmoor – for now

Rare animal and bird species released into the wild on Dartmoor are finding their feet, spreading their wings, and settling in new homes elsewhere.

Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) has reported that a number of pine martens recently released on the moor have scattered in different directions. Additionally, rare curlews released on the moor have been spotted as far afield as the Scilly Isles and Holland.

“Whether the curlew programme has been a success or a failure is in the eye of the beholder,” said the authority’s deputy chair, William Dracup. “A lot of curlews have been bred and released, and many positive lessons have been learned.

“We hope some of them choose to return to the wonderful place that is Dartmoor.”

As part of a round-up of nature enhancement projects, authority members learned that funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund had supported the release of 15 pine martens at secret locations on the moor. The martens originally came from Scotland.

They are still being tracked, but DNPA’s head of conservation, Chris Giles, said that while some remain on the moor, others have left. Some have moved to the South Devon coast and Newton Abbot, while others have disappeared, possibly because their tracking equipment was damaged.

“This is expected,” he said. “They are becoming more mobile as they approach the breeding season.”

The long-term goal is for the pine martens released on Dartmoor and Exmoor to join populations heading south and west from Wales.

A programme to increase the number of curlews, classified as ‘red’ in Britain due to their declining numbers, has not yet achieved the success conservationists had hoped for.

The meeting heard that a five-year initiative led by the Duchy of Cornwall had seen eggs, which would otherwise have been destroyed, incubated and raised on Dartmoor.

The eggs come from RAF bases in the east of England, where they are removed because the birds pose a hazard to aircraft. The aim is to release 20 to 30 birds each summer so they will return each spring, restoring a breeding population on Dartmoor, which is now down to just one last ageing pair.

Mr Giles said: “Unfortunately, to date, few project birds have returned from overwintering sites to Dartmoor, although this will be monitored over the next few years.”

He added that it was difficult to know where the migrating birds went, but some had been recorded in the Scillies and others in Holland.

“The issue is that they are not coming back,” he said.