{"id":674631,"date":"2026-07-05T06:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674631\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T06:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T06:53:08","slug":"rare-pine-marten-spotted-in-sussex-for-first-time-in-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674631\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare pine marten spotted in Sussex for first time in century"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  A pine marten, mostly found in the north of the UK, was pictured in a garden in Worthing last month.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The last recorded sighting in Sussex was in Woolbeding, north of Chichester, in 1923.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Fran Southgate, nature recovery manager for Sussex Wildlife Trust, described it as a \u201chighly unusual sighting\u201d and, having contacted local animal rescue centres, believed it was a \u201cwild animal\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She said: \u201cThe reason for the excitement is that the nearest known breeding colony of pine marten is in the New Forest in Hampshire.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A pine marten in a Worthing back garden (Image: Used with permission)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe only verified sighting of a pine marten in the South East this year was in Surrey, and the last known record of pine marten in Sussex was nearly a century ago.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She added that it could be \u201ca very exciting development in the recovery of native species to Sussex\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Pine Martens are part of the mustelid family, which makes it a close relative of other animals like weasels, stoats and badgers.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theargus.co.uk\/news\/23644743.horsham-mystery-family-black-mustelids-walk-along-high-street\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">A family of black mustelids emerged from a drain and walked down the high street in a Sussex town three years ago.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Sussex Wildlife Trust has been supporting the South East Pine Marten Recovery Project for the last three years, assessing the possibility of restoring pine martens to the region.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  They \u201cplay important roles which contribute to a biodiverse environment, by dispersing the seeds they eat as well as influencing small mammal populations through predation\u201d, the trust said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Ms Southgate added: \u201cIt goes to show how resilient wildlife can be.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A pine marten in a Worthing back garden (Image: Used with permission)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIf we restore the resources, habitat networks and migration routes they need, nature can and will recover.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe best laid plans of humans are often unknown to wildlife, and in the end, given the opportunity, species will behave instinctively and in a way that we often can\u2019t predict.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see where the next pine marten appears.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pine marten, mostly found in the north of the UK, was pictured in a garden in Worthing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-674631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}