A rare sighting of a pine marten has been captured on a night vision camera.
The animal was spotted in the Mendips, Somerset, by conservationists at the Patch Wilder project.
Staff monitoring the 15 acres of grassland and woodland say they could not believe it when they saw the pine marten as none have been officially released in the county. Pine Martens are around half a metre long and typically roam between one and 20km.
“They have a characteristic white bib but it is such a surprise to see one, it took me a good couple of watches of the video for it to sink in,” said ecologist Charlie Fayers.