AN ambitious project searching for evidence of one of Britain's rarest mammals on the North Yorks Moors has raised more than £1,500.

Wildlife organisation NatureSpy turned to the crowd-funding site Indiegogo to finance more Bushnell wildlife camera traps in a bid to spot pine martens.

The cameras trigger when animals pass by, snapping a picture or video and can work independently 24 hours a day for up to a year.

The pine marten, the second-rarest carnivorous mammal in the UK, has never been officially recorded alive in Yorkshire, although there are regular sightings.

A dead specimen was discovered on the North York Moors in 1993 and in November a camera trap recorded an image of what experts believe could be one of the creatures.

The crowd-funding campaign reached far and wide, attracting visitors from more than 70 countries and contributions from as far afield as Texas and Portugal.

“We’ve been blown away by the interest. The plight of the pine marten in Yorkshire has received a big boost,” said NatureSpy wildlife biologist Hannah Henshaw.

“The success of the campaign meant we could purchase more cameras than expected. Now we have a much better chance of uncovering if they are here, and where they are living – all thanks to the public that supported us."

The next phase of the project will see the additional Bushnell camera traps placed in new not-yet-monitored forests, working with the Forestry Commission.

The existing project cameras have already captured wildlife in the forests such as badger, roe deer, foxes and tawny owl. There has also been one ‘inconclusive’ image of what may have been a pine marten.

Pine martens resemble ferrets or stoats, but are significantly larger, with adults growing more than two feet in length, and sport a bushy tail.

For details visit www.nature-spy.co.uk.