unseen creature

[aland]

Hello every one i have just become a member in the hope someone may be able to solve a mistery for us, we keep small ponys and had become over run with rabbits that had decided to live under the hay and straw bales in our biulding we love rabbits but they have cost us a lot of grass yet we are to soft to kill them, but some one as moved in, it has not been seen it lives in a small hole to small to drag a rabbit in, we have found six remains of rabbits in ten days just skin and bone always left just outside the hole, also mice and rats are vanishing we are not complaining at all just curius, perhaps someone could describe the droppings of stoats or weasles there is a lot of what looks like rat droppings !!!, thanks aland.

[christ1979]

sounds like a stoat to me. Go to Stoat | Wild About Britain for further info - hope this helps

[aland]

Thanks for your reply this looks like it may well be a stoat but we have not seen any thing, the rabbits have become a problem but because we have a lot of pets we have become very soft and have let them walk all over us, i must admit finding these bunny remains as not upset me like it would have done years ago, my wife and i are real lovers of wildlife we are in warwickshire countryside, foxes are more than welcome i have six owl boxes no owls in the hope of natural predation over rats mice and rabbits as these get out of hand, bye for now, aland.

[The Woodman]

It could also be a polecat, they love to eat rabbits and ofter den in stacks of hay bales. They are in Warks too. Rats and mice are also on their diet list.

A couple of images of polecat scats, stoat scats look similar but slightly smaller and it wouldn't suprise me if when you get into the stack of bales, you find a midden i.e. a pile of scats from either species.

[aland]

Thanks for the info on polecats are these about the same size as stoats etc only the hole size is small and each time we find a skin etc it has been pulled tight to the entrance and finished off no flesh left at all six so far, we have had to make sure that we have no rat traps around as we are quite happy to leave whatever prediter and nature to its own ends, i have searched for droppings etc but not found any yet that are different to rats bye for now, aland.

[Bullseye]

Have a good sniff at the (going to be careful what I say here !) suspected ...........doorway ....of the "home",if it's a stoat or polecat you'll know !,no mistaking the odour of a mustelid.

[aland]

Thanks bullseye, I will send my wife to try that one, I have at last found two samples of droppings yesterday they are three to four inches long also the remains of another rat, rear feet and tail some skin, this is looking more and more like a stoat, all of our straw and hay is stacked up on one floor layer of pallets and any small animal as around four inches of head room to run around in, this to help cut down on damage to bale strings from mice rats etc hedge hogs love this in winter and they also have babys under them, bye, aland.

[aland]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Have a good sniff at the (going to be careful what I say here !) suspected ...........doorway ....of the "home",if it's a stoat or polecat you'll know !,no mistaking the odour of a mustelid.

We have today tue 21/4/09 had quite a shock after finding three rabbit carcases we set up a video cam for one hour, At the very end out of the bales popped up two tiny fox cubs we are totally gobsmacked, some how mother fox has carried the cubs over the top of the stack into a closed off area, I still think that we have another predator because of the small holes with the prey dragged in, will let you know if any thing else pops up, aland.

[Pippa]

Hi Aland,welcome to WAB. A very interesting read.

I am really pleased to hear about the cubs and whatever else you discover.

Please keep us informed

[aland]

HI,this is alan's wife. today the we have seen mother fox and three cub's we are begining to think that there are no stoat's weasles etc. yet we are still unsure about the small hole's ,beryl