From Jonathan Wallace
The portrait of a pine marten by Terry Whittaker was splendid (19 March, p 25). But I was disappointed that you described the species as “one of Scotland's most voracious predators”.
Such language reinforces 19th-century attitudes to certain predators that still prevail on many game-shooting estates. These are associated with widespread illegal persecution of a number of rare and threatened species. The pine marten is neither more nor less voracious a predator than, say, a blue tit.
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
