Copyright Andy Shaw
Feral ferret - Mustela furo
This domesticated mustelid is only considered here for good housekeeping purposes, to show that it’s been considered and recognised in its potentiality to contaminate the polecat record dataset. On a national level, research has found that significant pockets of feral populations are unlikely to persist within wild populations, only existing in this state on polecat-free islands around the coast. However, with 100,000 ferrets being kept as pets in the UK escapes and releases are an obvious threat as they can successfully breed with polecats and have fertile offspring.
Copyright Liam Smeethe
Copyright Liam Smeethe
Only polecats with no sign of hybridisation are recorded for this atlas but this is a crude method by today’s standards and not 100% accurate in weeding out hybrids. DNA testing on roadkill in Cheshire suggests that between one in ten and one in twenty roadkill is a hybrid. This method is expensive and is unlikely to be used during this project.
AH
