big dave Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Got it on camera this morning I think it must of been a jill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 This is one taken when it spotted or smelt me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Nive pictures big dave. I don't know where you are located , but it could be a ferret/polecat escapee, or a wild mink, especially the latter if you were near a river, or stream. I think truly wild polecats are only found in a very few areas, like parts of Wales and Cumbria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordan Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Nive pictures big dave. I don't know where you are located , but it could be a ferret/polecat escapee, or a wild mink, especially the latter if you were near a river, or stream. I think truly wild polecats are only found in a very few areas, like parts of Wales and Cumbria Alot of people think that cranfield but i live in gloucstershire and have in the last year seen 2 dead ones on my shooting permission and know for a fact there's a quarry by me that has them living in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete evans Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 teal and i saw a possible wild polecat when out lamping one night. It may have been an escapee but didnt act like a domesticated animal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Sorry lads i had to go out just after i posted these photos :*) I live in north Shropshire. The land that i have permission on is near to a village called Hodnet. This is'nt the first time i have seen Polecats on the land. Last year while i was in my hide shooting pigeons over clover, i watched a big hob going from one burry to another searching for a easy meal. B) It was one of those mornings when i wish i had a video camera with me, to see him bolt rabbits in the wild was a pleasure. I just wish he had been working with me & the shotgun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teal Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 teal and i saw a possible wild polecat when out lamping one night. It may have been an escapee but didnt act like a domesticated animal. It was obviously having good success on the local bunny population as it was pretty large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 I found this on Google, so it seems it could have been the "real thing". Its good when you learn something new every day. The 1990s polecat distribution survey involved collection of hundreds of polecat corpses, mostly recovered as road casualties. These were processed by the National Museums of Scotland where, among many valuable studies, work on the polecat/ferret relationship was carried out. Skins were scored and skulls measured from polecats and ferrets from many parts of Britain, and compared with those from 'pure' Welsh animals to determine where else true polecats still survived. Despite increasing evidence of hybridisation with ferrets as one moved east through the polecat's range, true Welsh-type animals were found throughout Wales, in the English Midlands, and in populations derived from reintroductions. True polecats are now re-established in the Midlands by natural spread at least as far east as a line through Macclesfield, Northampton and Oxford, and through reintroductions to Argyll, Cumbria, the Chilterns and parts of Hampshire and Wiltshire in central southern England. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.223 Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 I think truly wild polecats are only found in a very few areas, like parts of Wales and Cumbria we also have them here in leicestershire caught 2 last year in my mink cage traps none this year yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 I was ferreting on the same land a few years back with a young jill. She was working well then we came to this small burry, only about three or four bolt holes no more. I got her out of her box she was really eager to work a right fidget but a steady young'n always well handled. I put her on the ground while i secured the box lid. I had another one in the box with me, an old jill one of my best working ferrets. The young'n had found her way to the hole like they do, but something was wrong. She stood her ground just inside the hole and started to hiss,tail was all bushed up that normally means a ferret ai'nt happy. I picked her up and she went for me at first until she noticed it was my hand. I put her back in the box and got the old jill out and she went further down but did the same and came back out. Has anyone had the same happen to them and do they think it could be because a wild polecat has taken up residence there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisherman Mike Posted July 3, 2005 Report Share Posted July 3, 2005 Could possibly be this indeed. While ferreting a field adjacent pine wood in Gloucestershire a few years back a friend and I introduced a young Jill to a bury under an old Oak. She came up 10 minutes later after not flushing any rabbits with her neck, ears and nose shreaded and bloodied. I thought at first she had laid up on a kill but she was badly damaged and No rabbit would have done that. We had blocked off all of the bolt holes and I went home to get my wire haired Tom ( sadly no longer with us ) He went into the bury and we dug through the top with a spade to reveal the angriest looking Polecat you could imagine. It may have been descended from domesticated stock but the game keeper rekoned that the area had not been ferreted before in the 20 odd years he had been there. We wont know for sure but It was as wild a beast as I have seen and even my Wirey thought twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubertus Posted July 4, 2005 Report Share Posted July 4, 2005 very nice pics! It seems to be a polecat. We used to have plenty of them over here but they dissappeared more and more last years. Dont know why. We get more and more martens (they are everywhere) and the polecat dissappear. Best wishes, Hubertus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peck Posted July 4, 2005 Report Share Posted July 4, 2005 hi big dave, Shropshire wildlife service are doing a study of polecats at the moment, they want people se send in any road kill polecats to determine how many there out there, i know yours is still alive but maybe they would be interested in some info any way. i work all around Shropshire inseminating cows and quite often see dead what people would say are stray ferrets dead on the road, but of all the dead ones i have seen they have all been polecat colour, i have never seen a dead one that has not been polecat colour so that must say something as ferrets now come in so many different colours the law of averages says if they were ferrets they would be various colours I live in Market Drayton, where are you.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2005 Hi Peck thanks for the reply I live near to the big ordnance depot in Donnington. Thanks for the info mate Here is another photo. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peck Posted July 4, 2005 Report Share Posted July 4, 2005 When i was working one day around the Potteries i saw what i thought was a ferret scuttling across the road, it was raining and the poor creature was wet through so i stopped the car and tried to catch it, as soon as it saw me it shot through the hedge and across the fields with me in pursuit, i eventually caucht up with it and got in front of it, it was spitting and making an awful noise, i eventually managed to get hold of it after getting bitten, as it was a youngster it did not puncture the skin. when i did manage to get hold, it let off a horrible stink, i know ferrets smell but this was almost as if it was some kind of defense mechanism like the Skunks have, the smell was really intense and took quite a while to get off my hands, i could smell it for days after. I am sure that it was a polecat I took it home and put it in a spare ferret hutch i had, even though i tried to tame it it never would let me see it let alone touch it, as soon as i got near the hutch it would bolt into the sleaping quarters and if i lifted the lid it would spit and hiss at me. the following year i thought i would try and breed from it so i put a hob with it and hoped for the best, needless to say i never got any babies so i returned to the place where i caught it and released it. Sounds easy doesn't it but this time i tried to catch it it was now fully grown and this time it did draw blood, and again it let off the stink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2005 Ye it sounds like you had yourself a wild polecat kit mate. I had the same experiance with a big hob that a bloke lent me to breed with my jills. It was a big nasty and extremly smelly hob.It never had my fingers but it had my mates fingers on more than one occasion. He used to hiss and back into the corner of the pen when i went near. :< When i returned him back to the owner i asked him if he had him from a kit. He just gave me a funny look and said no. I noticed that he would grab it around the neck and hold it very tight. He was taking no chances Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fert Posted July 5, 2005 Report Share Posted July 5, 2005 the beginning of last years season i noticed a lot of what i thought discarded ferrets on the side of the road.come to think of it could have been polecats.and saw a couple of live ones to.the ferrets not entering a bury and backing up has happenend a couple of times with me.the one time the polecat was very near the entrey of he burrow and hissed at the ferret ready to enter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackthorn Posted July 5, 2005 Report Share Posted July 5, 2005 couple of years ago out working a small albino jill she was enterd gon a fair while came out baterd to fu-k all fluft up belive me ferrets let of that smell as well.gash on her head split eye lid split under jaw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2005 I have had squirrels in my nets and ferrets bitten by them. :< :< They can make a mess of a small jill aswell. :< The best thing for the grey squirrel is a dose of lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Master Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Hi, I was out lamping and we spotted by the rabbit holes a large hob which I think was a polecat. I got within about 3 metres of it and it went down a hole. Me and my mate both think it was a poly as it was larger and darker than my ferrets. I thought it might be a feral ferret and tried squeaking it in but to no avail. Having thought about it though nobody ferrets in the area so it can't be an escapee and it was to large and dark to be a ferret. Iam in Wiltshire and there is supposed to true polys here so I hope to see him again! However being a petermist my dad says it was a stoat... IT WASN'T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilishdave Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 I used to live at Tern hill big dave Hodnet is a nice part of the country, I try to get back once a year to visit friends in the area. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Hi Ferret Master I think by the description it was most likely a wild Polecat. :thumbs: People make the assumption that they are ferrel ferrets because you can get very close before they make a run for it. People forget or do'nt know that Polecats like ferrets have poor eyesight. If they see you or smell you they will probably hiss. Then leg it. Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big dave Posted July 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 Hi Devilishdave Ye its a very nice area :thumbs: I think that the Shropshire countryside as a whole is very nice and some great places to visit. But then again iam biased Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fert Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 i agree with you on that bd.but then again i could be biased Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riothedog Posted July 14, 2005 Report Share Posted July 14, 2005 There is a lot of confusion over the identification of this family of animals and it's really quite simple. "Whats the difference between a ferret and a polecat?" "One is 'weasely' recognisable and the other is 'stoatly' different!" :thumbs: Or :*) Perhaps it's the way I tell 'em... RTD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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