This week has seen great excitement in my garden. I was away for a few days and on the first morning back I saw a stoat outside the front door and later one on the drive. There had been very little stoat action on the garden trail cameras while I was away but on Monday evening there were four stoat kits running up and down the drive so I knew something had changed. They were so fast and unpredictable that photographing them was difficult.
Later I saw more playing on a tree stump in the meadow.
Here is a brief view of what they got up to on the wall.
Several times the cameras picked up a kit carrying food. The first one here has a vole which it doesn't want to share and the second is carrying what looks like a rabbit's head.
After only 48 hours they were gone but they saved the best till last. I had been wondering whether there were four or five but you can see on the next video there were ten! I presume this is mother and nine kits, assuming there weren't more out of view. A stoat family moving en masse like this is known as a caravan.
Here's another edit of the video with a slow motion replay to help count the stoats.
Jenny MacPherson's book Stoats, Weasels, Martens & Polecats says that a stoat litter usually has six to nine kits which are born in April or May and become independent at about 12 weeks. The book also says 10 stoats will eat about 0.5 kg of meat a day which translates into a lot of voles and rabbit heads so I expect this last video was the mother rounding them all up to move on because they had eaten all the food.
After seeing the kits on the stump I set up an extra trail camera.
Here is a brief view of what they got up to on the wall.
Several times the cameras picked up a kit carrying food. The first one here has a vole which it doesn't want to share and the second is carrying what looks like a rabbit's head.
After only 48 hours they were gone but they saved the best till last. I had been wondering whether there were four or five but you can see on the next video there were ten! I presume this is mother and nine kits, assuming there weren't more out of view. A stoat family moving en masse like this is known as a caravan.
Here's another edit of the video with a slow motion replay to help count the stoats.
Jenny MacPherson's book Stoats, Weasels, Martens & Polecats says that a stoat litter usually has six to nine kits which are born in April or May and become independent at about 12 weeks. The book also says 10 stoats will eat about 0.5 kg of meat a day which translates into a lot of voles and rabbit heads so I expect this last video was the mother rounding them all up to move on because they had eaten all the food.
The cameras are still in place so I'll know if any of the stoats return. Although they didn't stay long I am just grateful they came while I was here to see them.
