Photo credit: WILDNorth social media.

By Curtis Galbraith

Wildlife

Pine marten rescue a first for two animal care organizations

Oct 20, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Updated with new pictures (see below).

The Grande Prairie Animal Hospital was part of an unusual wild animal rescue in late September.

Practice Manager Dana Johnson says someone from the Wedgewood neighbourhod brought in a pine marten they had found in their backyard.

“No injuries that were obvious, so no broken bones, no cuts or wounds or anything like that, just very lethargic, so kind of sleepy, didn’t want to move much.”

Johnson says the person who brought it in had phoned the clinic first.

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“He wasn’t even sure what he had. He thought maybe it was a fox kit or something like that. He just knew what colour it was and kind of how big it was. He could pick it up, no problem, with a towel.”

The pine marten was then taken to WILDNorth, a wildlife rehab centre near Edmonton that works with wild birds and small mammals.

Director of WILDcare Carly Lynch says the animal had been busily digging when it became non-responsive. She adds it looks like it got into something toxic.

“We were worried about some different conditions and stuff that we were ruling out with the bloodwork and ultrasound but, in the end, it does look like it got into something poisonous or something toxic.”

Lynch says they can’t be 100 per cent sure of what happened.

She adds the pine marten came into their care on September 27 and left October 5. It has been released again in the area where it was found.

During that time, a veterinary clinic in Edmonton did bloodwork and arranged for an ultrasound and an echocardiogram. The ultrasound company donated its services.

Photo credit: WILDNorth social media.

Lynch says this is the first pine marten WILDNorth has had come in.

“At least that I’ve ever taken care of. I’ve been working here for 10 years. We don’t get creatures from that group very often.”

Johnson also says they have never had a pine marten brought to their clinic before.

“I’ve never seen one. Not up close anyway. I’ve seen pictures. None of our technicians had really ever seen one up close either, so it was kind of a big deal to have him come in. I don’t know how many people out in the public ever see them either.”

Johnson says it is a good thing the pine marten was unresponsive as they are usually quite vicious and aggressive. She says it was a male and looked like it might be a young adult. Pine martens are part of the weasel family.

Lynch says it is getting more common for her organization to see animals from the north come in.

“For my first, maybe, seven years of working here, we were getting a phone call from Grande Prairie or that region maybe once every few months, maybe even only a few times a year.”

“We have started really getting the word out to the communities that we are here, we are the northernmost, full-scope wildlife rehab. centre in Alberta.”

Lynch says WILDNorth currently has a gull in care from this area that arrived the same day they brought the pine marten back up here to be released.

She adds anyone who wants to make a donation or that drives a lot between here and Edmonton and could be a transport volunteer can email info@wildnorth.ca She says they currently have one volunteer driver that has made close to 17 trips between Grande Prairie and Edmonton in the last year.

Corrected from an earlier version UPDATE: The person who found the pine marten, Chris Thiessen (not the city councillor, different one), contacted EverythingGP by email. He included the following pictures from the day the animal was found.

Photo supplied by Chris Thiessen.

Photo supplied by Chris Thiessen.