Personality as a conservation translocation tool

In the UK, if you visited a local Zoo the chances are that European pine marten (Martes martes) would not be on display. This is because there are only a handful of captive animals within the entire national captive collection. Despite their rarity though, captive individuals have offered research opportunities that have benefited wild populations. For example, the Vincent Wildlife Trust den box was developed following observations of a prototype used by animals within a woodland enclosure at the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Elsewhere, feeding trials involving measured volumes of food items and analysis of associated scat samples have offered an opportunity to better calibrate wild diets from scat analysis.