Stoat City
BBC Wildlife|Spring 2019

We know remarkably little about stoats in the wild, but a ve-year study in a Yorkshire garden is offering a privileged glimpse into their intimate world.

Robert E Fuller
Stoat City

A stoat scampers up to the window of my studio and stands on her hind legs, pressing a delicate five-digit paw against the glass. She looks up and our eyes connect momentarily. I know this wild individual well. Her name is Bandita, and on my easel is a portrait of her in acrylics.

I turn to my right to follow Bandita’s movements via a bank of monitors relaying live footage from 20 locations in my threeacre garden. She dashes from camera to camera, through ‘Mirror Wall’, along ‘Hedge Path’ and down the valley into ‘Stone Trough Wall’. Finally she enters a nest I built for her and coils into a perfect circle. Within seconds she has fallen asleep in a soft bed of dry grass.

For the last five years, I have studied six generations of a remarkable stoat dynasty, including the beautiful Bandita. I have come to know each one individually. Yet it was a chance sighting of the stoat who would later become Bandita’s mother that cranked up my growing obsession with these marvellous mustelids.

One morning in 2015, I opened my bedroom curtains to see an unknown character bouncing on cabbage netting strung across my vegetable patch. I stood transfixed as she ran, jumped, twisted and span like a turbo-driven thunder ball in a series of seemingly impossible manoeuvres. Wondering if this was the fabled stoat ‘war dance,’ I rushed to grab a camera. But before I could take a shot, she was gone.

Stoat versus weasel

The next time I glimpsed this stoat was less savoury. I heard an earpiercing screech in the garden, and two forms emerged: the stoat was viciously biting a weasel. They broke apart and the weasel staggered away with a nasty gash under its jaw. I had read that stoats kill weasels to eliminate competition for food; now I’d seen it with my own eyes.

This story is from the Spring 2019 edition of BBC Wildlife.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the Spring 2019 edition of BBC Wildlife.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM BBC WILDLIFEView All
Metamorphosis: a life-changing event
BBC Wildlife

Metamorphosis: a life-changing event

WITH EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST JV CHAMARY

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2024
Can your really offset emissions?
BBC Wildlife

Can your really offset emissions?

Planning an overseas wildlife-watching trip entails facing some inconvenient truths

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2024
New series for BBC One: Asia
BBC Wildlife

New series for BBC One: Asia

Settle in this autumn for a new natural-history extravaganza on BBC One and iPlayer: the longawaited Asia, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

time-read
1 min  |
November 2024
Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply
BBC Wildlife

Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply

Albatrosses and petrels may be forced to fly further to feed

time-read
1 min  |
November 2024
Tarsiers in trouble
BBC Wildlife

Tarsiers in trouble

Urgent action is needed to ensure survival of the Yoda-like primate

time-read
1 min  |
November 2024
SNAP-CHAT
BBC Wildlife

SNAP-CHAT

Chien Lee on shrew loos, rogue drones and being rained out of bed

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2024
VISIONS OF NATURE
BBC Wildlife

VISIONS OF NATURE

The winners of the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition 2024, from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2024
RETURN OF THE GIANTS
BBC Wildlife

RETURN OF THE GIANTS

After two decades of preparations, the island of Floreana in the Galápagos is ready to welcome back an iconic tortoise

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2024
10 HOLIDAYS FOR CONSERVATION
BBC Wildlife

10 HOLIDAYS FOR CONSERVATION

Our round-up of the best ecotourism projects around the world. Here's how to help wildlife while having a blast!

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2024
See it, save it?
BBC Wildlife

See it, save it?

Wildlife tourism can be a powerful ally in protecting nature - but it can also harm it. We weigh up the pros and cons.

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2024