A pine marten captured by one of the remote cameras in Glen Nevis. Photo: Michelle Melville/Highland Council
A charity that organises Three Peaks Challenge events has funded the installation of remote cameras around Britain’s highest mountain to capture images of elusive wildlife.
The equipment being used by Highland Council and John Muir Trust staff in Glen Nevis and have caught a variety of Scottish wildlife on camera, including pine marten, badger and woodpecker.
CARE International organises a number of challenge events to raise funds each year, including a Three Peaks Challenge event in which walkers tackle Ben Nevis.
The charity has provided the cash for the project as its way of putting something back in to the communities that host them.
CARE International, which works in 87 countries helping millions of the world’s poorest people find a route out of poverty, will also fund a live feed from a bird box to the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre, where the remote camera images can also be viewed.
Over time rangers hope to snap otters, golden eagles and foxes, as well as confirm the presence of the elusive Scottish wildcat.
Michelle Melville, the Highland Council’s Glen Nevis ranger has been using the cameras to help the Glen Nevis Junior Rangers to connect with local wildlife. She said: “The Junior Rangers have really enjoyed getting hands on with the new cameras.
“After filming blue tits, great tits, coal tits, goldfinches and siskins they managed to get photos of a great spotted woodpecker on our feeder.
“One day a pine marten got stuck in the garage at the visitor’s centre and after letting it out I decided that the camera might be used to film this elusive animal at night. We baited a station in the woodshed with peanuts and eventually we caught our first photos of a pine marten.
“Our next challenge is to try and get photos of the otters on the River Nevis.”
Cameras have also been set up on the John Muir Trust’s Ben Nevis estate. Sarah Lewis, the trust’s Nevis conservation officer, said: “The cameras should give us a better idea of the species present in Steall gorge and the meadows above.
“We hope to get photos of badgers, foxes and pine marten, as well as resident birds of prey such as the golden eagle.
“There have also been reported sightings and prints of the Scottish wildcat in the glen but no confirmed records for a number of years, so we’re really eager to catch one on camera.”
The John Muir Trust owns and cares for most of the upper reaches of Ben Nevis.
