Son had an amazing video he took on his phone of a stoat carrying a rabbit to its youngs who were living in a stack of piping by his workplace ... I'll have to see if he still has the video on his phone ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Weasels are smaller than stoats, there is a saying that they can fit through a wedding ring. So any tiny hole would be easily used by a weasel, getting the chickens back out those holes is going to be tricky for them though.
Iv only ever seen a stoat once , I heard a noise when out walking through a wood looked round to see a stoat with a massive goose egg taking it back to its den. The egg was rounder than the stoat was but it had no trouble moving it.
I think the slinky black things I used to see running into the hedgerows on the road into Southwold (when I used to visit there more regularly to attend craft fairs, so always early in the morning) were mink rather than stoats. I know weasels are much smaller but - could it have been a ferret?
I'll bow to Dove's superior knowledge. Our dog killed what I thought was a stoat, the only one I've seen close to, and that was here in Ireland but my childhood was in central Sussex where I worked with my Dad in the woods. Periodically we'd hear an animal squealing, which my Dad said was a rabbit being hunted by a stoat. We'd visually track it until the squealing stopped, then he'd go and collect the rabbit that was perfect except for a puncture wound in the neck where blood had been taken. Rabbit stew soon after.
In 1992, while looking over a river bridge in rural Romania, I spotted a larger animal with a pronounced white front and brown coat that I assumed was a weasel. Maybe it wasn't!
That could have been a pine marten @nick615 , same mustelid family.
I am a fan of pine martens, I’d love to see one, they are increasing in Wales/England. Where they are increasing there is a decrease in the grey squirrel population, it’s thought that as grey squirrels spend a lot of time on the floor and are heavier than the reds they are easier for the pine martens to catch.
@didyw yes it could have been a pole cat/ferret. In recent years a gamekeeper friend got a pole cat in a humane trap, it’s in the middle of nowhere so he assumes it was a wild one. He has been a gamekeeper at the same estate for 30 years and had never seen one until then. (It was released unharmed, I watched the video.)
In my teenage years i used to go ferreting for rabbits. A friend kept them in a hutch in his garden. We spent many a happy winters day out with the ferrets.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Iv only ever seen a stoat once , I heard a noise when out walking through a wood looked round to see a stoat with a massive goose egg taking it back to its den. The egg was rounder than the stoat was but it had no trouble moving it.
Failure is always an option.
In 1992, while looking over a river bridge in rural Romania, I spotted a larger animal with a pronounced white front and brown coat that I assumed was a weasel. Maybe it wasn't!
I am a fan of pine martens, I’d love to see one, they are increasing in Wales/England. Where they are increasing there is a decrease in the grey squirrel population, it’s thought that as grey squirrels spend a lot of time on the floor and are heavier than the reds they are easier for the pine martens to catch.
@didyw yes it could have been a pole cat/ferret. In recent years a gamekeeper friend got a pole cat in a humane trap, it’s in the middle of nowhere so he assumes it was a wild one. He has been a gamekeeper at the same estate for 30 years and had never seen one until then. (It was released unharmed, I watched the video.)
Failure is always an option.
Weasels are weasely recognised, whereas stoats are stoatally different