Polecat

They are the largest members of the true weasel genus (Mustela), and while having a few physical differences from ferrets, they have served as breeding stock for the domestic or household ferrets.

Like other Mustela species, they prefer semi-open space habitat near water resources such as rivers and streams. They are solitary animals, active year round, and they balance their diet between the small land animals and small water animals (fish and amphibians), depending on the season.

An 1850 review of the polecat in A History of the Earth and Animated Nature provides insight into the common European view of the animal, and the reasons it was hunted close to extinction through much of Europe.

"It is very destructive to young game of all kinds; but the rabbit seems to be its favourite prey; a single polecat is often sufficient to destroy a whole warren; for, with that insatiable thirst for blood which is natural to all the weasel kind, it kills much more than it can devour; and I have seen twenty rabbits at a time taken out dead, which they had destroyed, and that by a wound which was hardly perceptible.

Their size, however, which is so much larger than the weasel, renders their retreats near houses much more precarious; although I have seen them burrow near a village, so as scarcely to be extirpated. But, in general, they reside in woods or thick brakes, making holes under ground of about two yards deep, commonly ending among the roots of large trees, for greater security. In winter they frequent houses and make a common practice of robbing the hen-roost and the dairy."

Weasels, generally speaking, never received very good press. Their now small population in Europe is protected in many states. The IUCN lists the species as one of least concern due to its stable population in Northwest Russia.

© 2010. Patricia A. Michaels