Weasel Wise

When noted wildlife artist robert fuller became a weasel whisperer, the scene was set for a spring watch soap opera.

- Amy-Jane Beer

You are two minutes late, said Robert Fuller as he motions me into the stone-flagged hallway of his Yorkshire Wolds farmhouse. It’s just past 8.15am on a mid-April morning and in fact I was early. But Robert meant late for the weasels. “She’s just left the nest. He’s still dozing, though – come and see.”

In the kitchen, an entire work top is taken up with monitors displaying live feeds from cameras located in nest boxes and feeders dotted around Robert and his wife Victoria’s garden. There are more screens in the living room, office and studio where Robert paints. All this technology is part of a tried-and-tested method for stage managing wildlife.

Robert first establishes the animals’ preferences, then he uses this knowledge to create situations in which they effectively pose for his popular wildlife paintings. The images that have resulted from this method include swallows nesting in an old hurricane lantern, badgers emerging from a hollow log and tawny owls peering from tree holes. But with the weasels, things have gone further. Robert has fallen for these tiny predators in a big way.

The weasels I’ve come to see are Teasel and Mr Two Spots, who a few weeks after my visit went on to become stars on BBC Two’s Spring watch. The pair were soon dubbed the “cosy couple” but the shenanigans during their breeding season didn’t just captivate TV viewers, they confounded long-held assumptions about weasel ecology too.

RISE AND SHINE