Stoat

Jim_Hodge

After years of being pestered by rabbits in my garden (very rural location), there was a ray of light recently. Three days ago a stoat ran across the road within 30mts of our garden. This morning it was in the garden. Do they hang around an area for long or are they wanderers? If it stuck around long enough to take a few rabbits, I'd be thrilled. It was also so cute to watch it leaping and suckling about.

fryup

take a few pics if you can

Jim_Hodge

fryup wrote: »

take a few pics if you can

Can't. I don't use a mobile phone generally and wouldn't know where to start putting it here.

Do they stay in an area?

fryup

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Do they stay in an area?

don't know..others here might be able to tell you

Rows Grower

You might be lucky...
https://animalcorner.org/animals/stoat/

Eddie B

Yes they do have a territory so might be a resident stoat, but also might be a male passing through, looking for females to mate with.

Stoats, weasels, minks and ferrets. I’ve often wondered the difference between them, which ones are native and which are the pests? How do you tell the difference?

Birdnuts

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Stoats, weasels, minks and ferrets. I’ve often wondered the difference between them, which ones are native and which are the pests? How do you tell the difference?

Only stoats are native

Eddie B

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Stoats, weasels, minks and ferrets. I’ve often wondered the difference between them, which ones are native and which are the pests? How do you tell the difference?

As said, stoats are the only native species from those species mentioned in your post. We don't have weasels here in Ireland, and feral ferrets are not very common.

Think of it this way. A stoat is very small. It's body, without the tail, could almost fit in your hand. The fur is light Brown in colour. Another distinguishing feature is, it always has a black tip to its tail. The tail is also thin in appearance.

Mink, much larger, and nearly always black in colour. Some may have a bit of white on the chest.

Another mustilids you haven't mentioned is the Pine Marten. Like the Stoat, it's a native species. Pine Marten can grow quite large. Brown in colour, with a large yellow patch on it's chest. The ears are very noticeable, compared to the other species, and the tail is quite fluffy.

fryup

how about polecats?

Eddie B

fryup wrote: »

how about polecats?

No polecats in Ireland

Rows Grower

Probably mixed up with Polecat ferrets.

Solli

Our dog just killed two baby stoats or kits, in our garden this morning. They were lovely little animals and they are good to have in the garden, keeping vermin at bay. We found a third stoateen cowering inside a stone wall but this evening it was gone, maybe the mother brought it away to safety. The dratted dog behaves like a cat and has no interest in cattle.

Tiercel Dave

Pity about that, I'd say 'mother' did come back and gather it back into the fold. They usually have quite big litters, I saw 10 once, so hopefully the rest get through unscathed.....

HoteiMarkii

Solli wrote: »

Our dog just killed two baby stoats or kits, in our garden this morning. They were lovely little animals and they are good to have in the garden, keeping vermin at bay. We found a third stoateen cowering inside a stone wall but this evening it was gone, maybe the mother brought it away to safety. The dratted dog behaves like a cat and has no interest in cattle.

I found two young Stoat kits curled up together in long grass in a field close to my home several years ago. Sadly, both were stone cold. I can only guess a female Stoat was moving them to a safer den, and for whatever reason didn't come back for them. A bittersweet thing really since I wasn't aware there were Stoats in the area at all. I would imagine in your case the female did come back to rescue her remaining kit.