A stoat visits WeaselCam

Two days after my last post on the weasel moving her family a stoat again appeared in the garden and this time came into the weasel box and was captured on camera.  I had wondered if the weasel might have been provoked into the move by a stoat and I think this makes it more likely.  A stoat would be a threat to a weasel.

Stoats are generally reluctant to enter camera boxes, including mine, even though mine has extra large outside entrance pipes (160mm).  This one I think is female because of its size - a male would be even larger.

Unusually the stoat went through and then came back through the box, common behaviour for a weasel but something I haven't seen with a stoat, although there have been very few stoat visits.

The stoat looks very big compared with a weasel and gave me the opportunity to have fun with making a composite photo from two frame grabs.  This is the female stoat with a female weasel. The two animals would be more similar in colour but the lighting was different on the two days. You can see why the stoat would present a danger to the weasel.

And the female stoat with a male weasel.

A female stoat is about 250g, a male weasel about 120g, and a female weasel about 60g.  A male stoat would be about 350g.

This was by far the best view so far of a stoat in the camera box.  I hope there will be more to share soon.