Stoat Mustela Erminea

Charles Smith-Jones looks at the diminutive but fierce stoat, scourge of the rabbit and adversary of many a gamekeeper as a result of its taste for ground-nesting birds as well as their chicks

- Charles Smith-Jones

The stoat has a special reputation for ferocity that is well out of proportion to its small size. It shares this trait with some other members of the mustelid family, which includes badgers, weasels and otters. It is quite capable of hunting above ground, but the stoat’s slender body is adapted to pursuing its prey through tunnels, burrows and other confined spaces, where it will not hesitate to take on a fully-grown rabbit up to ten times its size. Some have been recorded killing hares.

The stoat is one of several animals that can grow a white coat in winter. Not all do, however, and you are more likely to encounter a white one the further north you go. Some southern stoats do not change colour at all, and it is said that a higher proportion of females tend to make the change.

The change of coat has been the undoing of many a stoat as the white pelts, known as ermine, have long been prized as a symbol of rank and ermine robes are still worn by British peers on state occasions.

The black dots on the robes are the black tips of the tail, which does not turn white, and the number of bars of ermine used to make them denotes the rank of the wearer.