Polecat or Hybrid (1 Viewer)

sidwemn said:

https://twitter.com/zuriag/status/1275538433730060291

This animal was showing well at Nosterfield NR in North Yorkshire yesterday (not seen it myself). Could it be a pure animal? Looks close, but I'm thinking possibly a bit too much white on the face band above the eyes & black only just reaching the nose. It doesn't appear to show any white feet, no white throat patch or white guard hairs on the hind quarters so I'm not really sure

Cheers
Martyn

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Farnboro John said:

If you read Johnny Birks' latest book, Polecats, you will find that the association between Polecat hybridisation and appearance is actually quite weak. If it looks broadly like a Polecat and is behaving like one, it most likely is one: and survival in the wild of hybrids and ferrets has been found on the whole to be poor, so as the true Polecat resumes its full British range the population's genetic purity actually improves.

So I would call this a Polecat and enjoy it.

John

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