Making, Mounting and Monitoring Pine Marten Hair-Tubes
Hair-tubes are used to:
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Detect the presence of pine martens.
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Determine the pine martens’ genetic make-up/origin (haplotype)
How they work:
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Sections of wastepipe erected in trees
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Bait is used to attract animal to enter the tube
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A sticky pad inside the tube collects hair from the animal that enters it
The hair is DNA tested to confirm which species it came from and, if pine marten,
tell us important genetic information about them
They are relatively cheap to make. The current design = £2.27/tube.
Component
Cost
Tube
£1.72
Lid
£0.25
Elastic strap
£0.16
Bait wire
<£0.01
Attachment wire
<£0.05
Bait
£0.05
4 x patches
£0.03
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Equipment required to make the hair-tube:
Part
Suggested equipment
Useful tools
Tube
Waste pipe (110mm diam.)
Handsaw
Plant pot saucer for lid (115mm diam.)
Jig saw
Elastic cord (45cm length)
Workbench/clamp
Drill and drill bits (3.5mm)
Measuring tape
Pencil/marker pen
Safety goggles
Patches
Corrugated plastic
Chopping board
Double-sided tape
Stanley knife
"Mouse glue" (available from
www.solwayfeeders.com).
Scissors
Metal ruler
(We can send out individuals sheets at
cost price [<£2]; each sheet will make
approximately 130 patches).
Pen
Attachment
Wire (approx. 2mm diam.)
Pliers (with wire-cutter)
Bait attachment
Wire (approx. 1mm diam.)
Pliers
Film canister (optional for lure)
Soldering iron (optional for
lure canister)
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Step-by-step guide to making a hair-tube:
1) Using the hand saw, cut a small ring from the
end of the pipe. This is useful later as a stencil.
2) Measure and mark-up (37.5cm length) individual
hair-tubes on the pipe.
3) Mark a strip (3cm) along the length of the pipe.
4) Cut individual tubes using the hand-saw.
5) Using the jig saw, cut out the marked 3cm section.
6) Mark out and drill six holes in each tube as shown (note
that you could add a second bait hole on the other side if
you wanted to add a film canister with bait inside).
7) Cut a 45cm length of elastic, feed both ends through the
top hole, and tie together on inside of tube.
.
Step-by-step guide to making patches for hair-tube:
1) Cut rectangular patches (20mm x 25mm) from the
corrugated plastic sheet.
2) Mark (10mm x 14mm) rectangles onto a mouse glue sheet.
3) Cut the sticky pads from the mouse glue sheet, using a craft knife and scissors.
4) Wrap a corrugated patch in double-sided tape.
5) Add the mouse glue patches to the corrugated patches.
Backing tape
Mouse glue patch
Corrugated plastic
6) Wrap the patch with backing tape from the
double-sided tape and secure with an elastic band.
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Step-by-step guide to mounting a hair-tube:
1) Prepare the bait. Chicken wings are recommended and these can be cut into
sections to save money.
2) Get your equipment together:
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Hair-tubes (Tip: these can be slid inside each other to save space in your bag when
carrying them)
Wire (approx. 2mm. diam) to attach bait
Wire (approx. 1mm. diam) to attach tube to trees
Patches (prepared as above)
Permanent marker pen
Notepad/datasheets
Pencil
Pliers (with wire cutter)
Lids (approx. and at least 11.5cm diam; plant pot trays work well)
Bait
Ribbon/ marker tie
Access permit
Map
3) Plan your route.
4) When you’re ready to mount your hair-tube, pull the elastic down
over the tube below the top two mounting holes.
5) From the inside of the tube, feed an attachment wire through the top holes above
the elastic. The length of this wire will be dependent on the girth of the tree
trunk.
6) Feed a second attachment wire through the bottom holes.
7) Cut a short section (10cm) of thin wire, feed one end through the bait (around the
bone if possible) and then feed both ends through the central hole in the tube.
Bend the ends back to hold the bait in position.
8) Add the lid and secure it with the elastic.
Elastic
Lid
Top attachment
wire
Bottom attachment wire
Bait
Wire securing bait
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9) Feed wire around the tree and secure by bending the ends of the wires on
themselves.
10) Prepare 4 stick patches. Tip: carefully peel off the cover from the mouse glue
patch and re-stick it using a tab – this makes it easier to remove when the patch is
inside the tube.
Mouse glue patch cover with ‘tab’
11) Add the patches (two on the top, and two on the bottom). Tip: Align corrugations
parallel to the length of the tube, and press hard!
12) Along with the bait inside the tube, you may wish to use other lures to attract a
marten to the tube. Perforated cans of sardines or small film canisters containing
cotton wool soaked in honey, cod liver oil or ‘marten lure’ can be hung from the
tree, or nearby trees, to entice the animal(s).
13) Label the tube with a unique number, using the permanent marker pen.
14) Record information on a datasheet for each tube.
15) Take a good look around to make sure you remember where the hair-tube is! You
may wish to use a ribbon or tie to identify the tree’s location from the trail, but try
to make sure that the tube is not easily seen by others.
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Where to mount the hair-tubes?
General
location
Specific
location
Is it somewhere a
marten is likely to be?
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Is it practical to
monitor?
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Were there any recent sightings in the area?
Is it ‘good’ habitat? Don’t restrict yourself to
pine!
Time constraints
Consider your route
Gentle and safe terrain and accessibility
Do you have the landowner’s permission?
How might a marten
move through the
area?
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Linear features: Walls/streams/forest edge
Animal trails
Wind-blown areas (for resting sites etc)
Craggy areas (den sites?)
Ground cover (foraging opportunities)
Tree species
(consider growth)
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It doesn’t have to be a pine!
Check tube is not damaging tree
Re-check this each visit
Is it in sight?
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Can it be easily seen by you and/or others
from the right-of-way?
Trade off between you/others easily finding
it
Consider using flagging tape/ribbon
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Reduce access by other species
Easy to monitoring and re-bait
Approximately chest height works well
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Height
How frequently to visit the tubes:
As often as you can, but this will depend on:
 Bait used (how quickly it will deteriorate)
 Time available
 Number of surveyors available to survey
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Step-by-step guide to monitoring hair-tubes:
1) Get your equipment together:
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Map (with location of tubes marked on it)
Pliers
Spare wire
Bait
Sticky patches
Numbered sample bags
Elastic bands
A pen knife, screwdriver or bit of wire
(to use as a lever to remove old patches)
Data sheets
Pencil
First aid kit
Mobile ‘phone
Hair-tube with a perforated tin of
sardines as a lure
2) At the hair-tube, remove the lid and check if the bait has been taken.
3) Check the sticky patches for hair samples.
4) Carefully remove the patches with hair on. A piece of wire, screwdriver or knife
can be used to lever the patch off the tube.
5) Wrap the patch in backing tape, secure with an elastic band and place in a sample
bag. Patches collected from the same tube can go into one bag. Tip: Backing tape
from the replacement patch can be used to wrap the removed patch in.
6) Label the sample bag with the date, location, grid reference, the tube number and
your initials.
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7) Check stickiness of all patches with no hair, and replace those with no/poor
stickiness.
8) Replace old or eaten bait with fresh bait.
9) Record information on the data sheet.
10) Back home, enter the data from the data sheets onto a computer spreadsheet.
11) Send hair samples for DNA analysis and eagerly await the results.
A marten entering a hair-tube
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Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No. 05598716 Registered Charity No. 112100