Don't reinvent the wheel

Selective breeding has turned wild polecats into working ferrets. James McKay says there’s no need to reverse this

- James McKay

The European polecat (Mustela putorius) was once considered to be a vicious, cold-blooded killer of gamebirds and, as such, was fair game for gamekeepers. Indeed, the keepers’ employers used to insist that all polecats, along with many other predatory species, were hounded unmercifully. Little wonder then that at the end of the 19th century the polecat was all but extinct, with just a few tiny populations left in areas not used for game shooting.

In 1914, thousands of gamekeepers joined the British Army and headed to France; few returned. The world had changed and one of the consequences of this was that estates no longer had the manpower to carry out intensive pest control. The polecat prospered.

Today, the polecat is widespread throughout Wales and has spread across the Midlands, too; with research proving that, in winter, the vast majority of the polecat’s prey species are rodents, particularly rats. Consequently, farmers are not too bothered about controlling their numbers. Under the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act, it is unlawful to trap polecats, and more and more country folk are welcoming back this once almost extinct animal.

Pure blood

For ferreters, the polecat has always held a special place; it is believed by many that the ferret, so beloved by countrymen and women for generations, is a domesticated European polecat. It has also been stated by many that ferrets ‘with a bit of polecat blood’ work many times better than the average ferret.

I have read several British books, the authors of which assure the reader that they have acquired a ‘wild polecat’ and hybridised it with the ferrets from their own backyard.