Pole Cats near in West Midlands?

[davecatt]

Just spotted this interesting bit of news though I dont know how accurate it is. If correct it could be good news for the species, the report claims they may be using the waterways as a natural corridor.

Polecat spotted on Midlands canal | News | Waterscape

Fingers crossed hey?

Dave

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by davecatt

Just spotted this interesting bit of news though I dont know how accurate it is.

This is accurate and typical of polecat, mink and otter behaviour (and to an extent weasel), despite polecat being the least aquatic of the three they still tend to be broadly associated with water in a lot of places, perhaps due to increased prey densities but also due to riparian corridors and associated dense vegetation structures. They avoid open habitat features and tend to move along vegetated banks, hedgerows, road verges, ditches, woodland edge, shelter belts and such like. River and canal corridors often have ungrazed less intensively managed banks in comparison to surrounding habitats like farmland. The recent range expansion has lead to some interesting behavioural patterns between polecats and mink which until recently were rather isolated from each other.

[davecatt]

I've never seen a Polecat,are they much bigger than a Mink? If so an increase in Polecat numbers combined with the expansion of Otter territory along the water ways may help to drive out the Mink? (hopefully)

Dave

[Dogghound]

Polecats and mink overlap in size due to males of both species being larger than females. There is not a lot of difference with polecats weighing slightly more than male mink on average. Recent studies in Britain (which are now possible due to polecat range expansion) suggest that mink become more diurnal where the territories overlap and remain nocturnal where no polecats occur. This is suggestive that mink have changed their behaviour in thesearas to reduce intractions and competition with polecats. It will be interesting to se how this develops as polecats (hopefully) spread.

Polecats certainly seem more dominant as do otters so both range expansions may directly or indirectly hinder mink. Although there is still only limited evidence that otters are having a significant impact on mink, in some waterways it appears not. Although it is accepted that some systems appear to have lost mink at the same time as otters arrived. Mink do become more secretive when sharing territories with otters and produce far fewer scats and carry out less territorial marking, which could suggest in some places they are overlooked.

[Uv moth notingha]

Maybe if polecat's spread to the midlands they would compete with the mink , and possibly push them out .......... that would be nice !
Not of course to be confused with the large numbers of polecat ferrets that roam our lands . They are similar but often paler than polecats with less distinct face markings .

UVMOTH