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Ferret or Stoat?


silver pigeon69
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Impossible to tell if it's a ferret or Polecat as many domestic Ferrets have the same appearance - no doubt cross breeding over the years - if it is a Polecat then you would be wise not to put down any type of trap that may catch/harm it as they are a protected species.Hope it is a Wild Polecat, I have never been fortunate enough to see one.

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Doesn't appear to have a dark enough mask for a polecat, from the images it looks like a ferret.

We have a reasonable number of polecat in the Forest of Dean, and after studying various road kill polecat, the mask is the defining factor, plus they appear to be slightly bigger than ferrets.

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Yep, looks like a cross polecat ferret without doubt, difficult in night vision but the demarkation on the colours is not quite as sharp as in a straight one to one pole cat/ferret cross.

Found one in the farm yard a week or so ago which probably fell fowl of eating a live/dead rat which had eaten poison and that one had very dark markings.  Another give away is the body shape, typical hunched movement of a ferret.

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5 hours ago, Robertt said:

Polecat ?

Definitely Polecat, larger member of the ferrets, I used to do a bit of rabbiting with them and they often 'got away' never to be seen again. Just as destructive as the wild mink, as I understand it these are an invasive species and not protected but I may be wrong!!

Edited by lakeside1000
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7 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

Impossible to tell if it's a ferret or Polecat as many domestic Ferrets have the same appearance - no doubt cross breeding over the years - if it is a Polecat then you would be wise not to put down any type of trap that may catch/harm it as they are a protected species.Hope it is a Wild Polecat, I have never been fortunate enough to see one.

Yep, under the wildlife and countryside act 1981. Also deemed of principal importance for diversity in England.

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59 minutes ago, Modafinale said:

Isn’t it illegal to illuminate a protected mammal ? 

Can you throw some more light on that statement?

6 hours ago, panoma1 said:

Forgive me as I have no experience using NV....but does not light colouration show up as dark and vice versa when using it?

Bit of a negative comment 😂

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On 17/03/2020 at 07:52, bruno22rf said:

Impossible to tell if it's a ferret or Polecat as many domestic Ferrets have the same appearance - no doubt cross breeding over the years - if it is a Polecat then you would be wise not to put down any type of trap that may catch/harm it as they are a protected species.Hope it is a Wild Polecat, I have never been fortunate enough to see one.

Saw my first wild Polecat last Sunday (15th) after 50+ years of various moochings around the British countryside.

Just south of Winwick on the  Cambridgeshire / East Northamptonshire border and the face "mask: was very dark (looked like a comedy sketch burglars mask) and extended down the nose.

Lovely to see it there - it was miles from where I shoot!

That one in the picture looks like a ferret.

Edited by Eyefor
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Sorry I remembered it incorrectly was thinking about

Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 

sect 11class license is required to permit the following:

schedule 6 wild animal 

Artificial light or any device for illuminating a target or sighting device for night shooting 

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