Return of the Polecat

[Alan]

The latest edition of BBC Wildlife Mag contained an feature on the apparent return of the Polecat, or as the author put it ' the invisible revolution taking place in our hegerows'. As the article states: in 1997 , Britain's polecats were estimated to number 38,000. With their range expanding at four kilometres a year and new populations established through releases, this figure could now be over 60,000.

I was wondering if anyone has had any encounters with these fascinating mustelids?

This is of particular interest to me as I used to keep ferrets in my teens, which are of course the domesticated decendents of the polecat.

Alan

[Ollie]

Hi Stoatytoat. Certainly haven't seen any in my area which is very near to you about 15 miles as the crow flies.

Ollie

[henrya]

By a strange coincidence, when I opened this thread first there was a visitor sitting at the desk next to me researching into Polecat distribution. Spooky or what?

henrya

[Alan]

The article in the bbc mag states that the current distribution of the polecat covers Wales and the West Midlands going down to south coast towards Plymouth, Cumbria, an area around Perthshire in Scotland plus a small area in the far north east of Scotland.

Needless to say most of the information built up on the distribution of polecats comes from road kills, so like otters many people could be unaware of their presence in their area.

Alan

[rlchew]

I vaguely recall seeing a roadkill in the depths of mid-Wales many years ago .... but none seen dead or alive since.

I guess like a lot of rare mammals they are particularly elusive and difficult to observe even in suitable habitat in their known range.

[Tragus]

Hi Stoatytoat
We have had quite a few into our rescue centre and if they are young ones they are sent to Stapley in Cheshire where they do a release program.
They tag them and release them in small groups.
We also have had them in our roof!! We live in a forest on the Herefordshire/Shropshire border and when we first moved in I checked the attic for bats (sad I know but we do have them in our wood shed!) anyway, I found Polecat droppings up there, and I found a dead adult Male Polecat at the bottom of our lane. They do grow to a huge size, at first sight it looked like a dead badger cub in the road!
A few years ago we also had some babies in from Shrewsbury library too, so they are around and we had about 4 in last year!
cheers
Jo

[paulinemiller10]

We had two polecats visit the garden, one took my dove, caught them in a home made shutter trap and relocated them to the country, living in the centre of town there was nt much food for them , and they spent their nights raiding all the bins, they made a lot more mess than cats, neighbours thought they were cats, I think they would have put poison down if they knew they were polecats, they settled on my friends land and have since had young. Pauline

[pheonix]

i have found records of polecats within 20 miles of where i live, some of which where a stones throw from where my parents live, but ive never seen one!

[carlj]

A very interesting article, and would recommend it to anyone. Seems these enlightened times have aided recovery of polecat numbers. Their abilities at rat and rabbit control seems to be welcomed by the farmers nowadays.

Not encountered one in decades, but nocturnal creatures are notoriously hard to nail down.

[nightshade]

The only polecat I have seen in my area was a domesticated escapee It was lying in the front garden of our last house,with just its face showing I thought it was a cat with no ears!until it did a loping exit for the hedgerow,opposite