Perched polecat
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Polecats are related to stoats, weasels, mink, pine martens, otters, badgers and wolverines.
They have dark brown fur with a yellowish, creamy under-fur showing through. They have black underparts, legs and tail and white patches on their face giving them a distinct dark, mask-like pattern.
The polecat used to be called a 'foul mart' because of its strong smell. The name polecat is said to be from the French poule chat,'the chicken cat' and it will kill chickens given the chance! Ferrets are creamy-white, domesticated polecats used to catch rabbits, and some escape. Many of these ferrets have reverted to polecat colouring over the generations and are known as polecat-ferrets, though they usually have a paler forehead and no mask. They also interbreed with true polecats so polecats vary in colour depending on how much ferret and how much true polecat is in their ancestry. Polecat-ferrets are found throughout Britain.
POLECAT SIZE: male:- head & body 38cm; tail 14cm. Female is smaller.
POLECAT WEIGHT: male up to 1.5kg. Female a little over half this.
POLECAT LIFESPAN: up to five years or more.
WHERE TO FIND POLECATS
Polecats are mainly found in Wales but they are spreading. They are widespread throughout the rest of Europe, as far north as southern Sweden and southern Finland.
The polecat will live in almost every kind of habitat, even sand dunes and sea cliffs, although it prefers woods and copses. It makes a den in any suitable hole, such as a rabbit burrow, fox earth or natural rock crevice. Sometimes a wood stack is used. In winter, shelter may be sought in a deserted building.
POLECAT PREY
Polecats catch mice, rats, voles, rabbits, birds and their eggs, frogs, lizards and snakes. They are said to kill adders and to be immune to their poison. They carry small prey by grasping it in the middle of the back.
POLECAT HABITS
Home and Hunting: The polecat is usually solitary and is mainly active by night, but may sometimes be seen hunting during the day. It moves quickly with its body almost touching the ground, long neck stretched out and short legs moving in a kind of paddling action - it glides rather than runs! Territories are marked with a very strong foul-smelling scent produced by pea-sized glands at the base of the tail.
Polecats are less agile than pine martens, and cannot climb as well. They have a keen sense of smell with which to track down prey.
POLECAT BREEDING
A male Polecat is called a hob, and a female is called a jill. Mating takes place between March and May, and after a gestation period (time between mating and birth) of six weeks, a litter of 3 - 8 young is born. The babies, covered with white, silky fur, are born into a nest of dry grass in woods or among rocks. The young leave the nest when two months old and the colours and markings of the adult appear at about three months. Baby polecats huddle together in the nest to keep warm, but in hot weather lie as far apart as possible. Family groups may be seen together in late summer, but by the winter the young polecats have gone their separate ways.
POLECATS AND MAN
The polecat was once a very common mammal throughout Britain, even found in the outskirts of London, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, persecution by gamekeepers and fur trappers had reduced it to a few isolated populations in central Wales.
The polecat was once considered as a threat to game and poultry and poultry-killing may be justified to some extent. However, gamekeepers and farmers, who trapped polecats mercilessly, rarely considered that predators like polecats probably help to keep the populations of rats and mice under control. The enormous reduction in polecat numbers might have contributed in the past to the huge increase in the populations of rats.
The polecat was also trapped for its fur, known as 'fitch', which was widely used in the early nineteenth century. Records show that a total of 400 polecat pelts was sold at the old Fur Fair in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1829, and 600 in 1831. In 1866, however, the number of furs for sale there was only six, after which they were not included in the records. Soon after 1907 the Scotish polecats seem to have become extinct.
Many years ago, polecat-hunting was practised among the country squires of North Wales, Cheshire, Cumberland and Westmorland, where special packs of hounds were kept to hunt them down.
They have dark brown fur with a yellowish, creamy under-fur showing through. They have black underparts, legs and tail and white patches on their face giving them a distinct dark, mask-like pattern.
The polecat used to be called a 'foul mart' because of its strong smell. The name polecat is said to be from the French poule chat,'the chicken cat' and it will kill chickens given the chance! Ferrets are creamy-white, domesticated polecats used to catch rabbits, and some escape. Many of these ferrets have reverted to polecat colouring over the generations and are known as polecat-ferrets, though they usually have a paler forehead and no mask. They also interbreed with true polecats so polecats vary in colour depending on how much ferret and how much true polecat is in their ancestry. Polecat-ferrets are found throughout Britain.
POLECAT SIZE: male:- head & body 38cm; tail 14cm. Female is smaller.
POLECAT WEIGHT: male up to 1.5kg. Female a little over half this.
POLECAT LIFESPAN: up to five years or more.
WHERE TO FIND POLECATS
Polecats are mainly found in Wales but they are spreading. They are widespread throughout the rest of Europe, as far north as southern Sweden and southern Finland.
The polecat will live in almost every kind of habitat, even sand dunes and sea cliffs, although it prefers woods and copses. It makes a den in any suitable hole, such as a rabbit burrow, fox earth or natural rock crevice. Sometimes a wood stack is used. In winter, shelter may be sought in a deserted building.
POLECAT PREY
Polecats catch mice, rats, voles, rabbits, birds and their eggs, frogs, lizards and snakes. They are said to kill adders and to be immune to their poison. They carry small prey by grasping it in the middle of the back.
POLECAT HABITS
Home and Hunting: The polecat is usually solitary and is mainly active by night, but may sometimes be seen hunting during the day. It moves quickly with its body almost touching the ground, long neck stretched out and short legs moving in a kind of paddling action - it glides rather than runs! Territories are marked with a very strong foul-smelling scent produced by pea-sized glands at the base of the tail.
Polecats are less agile than pine martens, and cannot climb as well. They have a keen sense of smell with which to track down prey.
POLECAT BREEDING
A male Polecat is called a hob, and a female is called a jill. Mating takes place between March and May, and after a gestation period (time between mating and birth) of six weeks, a litter of 3 - 8 young is born. The babies, covered with white, silky fur, are born into a nest of dry grass in woods or among rocks. The young leave the nest when two months old and the colours and markings of the adult appear at about three months. Baby polecats huddle together in the nest to keep warm, but in hot weather lie as far apart as possible. Family groups may be seen together in late summer, but by the winter the young polecats have gone their separate ways.
POLECATS AND MAN
The polecat was once a very common mammal throughout Britain, even found in the outskirts of London, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, persecution by gamekeepers and fur trappers had reduced it to a few isolated populations in central Wales.
The polecat was once considered as a threat to game and poultry and poultry-killing may be justified to some extent. However, gamekeepers and farmers, who trapped polecats mercilessly, rarely considered that predators like polecats probably help to keep the populations of rats and mice under control. The enormous reduction in polecat numbers might have contributed in the past to the huge increase in the populations of rats.
The polecat was also trapped for its fur, known as 'fitch', which was widely used in the early nineteenth century. Records show that a total of 400 polecat pelts was sold at the old Fur Fair in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1829, and 600 in 1831. In 1866, however, the number of furs for sale there was only six, after which they were not included in the records. Soon after 1907 the Scotish polecats seem to have become extinct.
Many years ago, polecat-hunting was practised among the country squires of North Wales, Cheshire, Cumberland and Westmorland, where special packs of hounds were kept to hunt them down.
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