Polecat a rare sighting and grim addition to our roadkill

ONE comes across plenty of mammal roadkill in the Westcountry, and sadly it is the same old species that tend to fall victim, from rabbits and hedgehogs to badgers and foxes.

However, one does occasionally pass something out of the ordinary, and I did just that along a wooded section of road between Tavistock and Milton Abbot at the weekend.

It was a polecat, dead beside the verge, with its telltale dark coat and white facial markings.

I slowed on the straight for a closer look, though the hornheavy motorist behind me seemed more intent on being angry than on actually overtaking and getting on his way, so I was forced to drive on.

Polecats are secretive and largely nocturnal creatures. One is more likely to come across one dead on a road, or rapidly scurrying across caught in the headlights, than out in the wilds.

It is a few years since I have seen a polecat, and again it was a roadkill victim in west Devon. A survey of their distribution was being carried out at the time by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, and I sent in that record. Experts determined that apparently it showed slight elements of hybridisation with a domestic ferret.

Ferrets were originally bred from polecats, and some dark ones can look virtually identical, though usually have paler fur and markings. Escapees can also inter-breed with wild polecats.

I wasn’t able to more closely examine my weekend sighting, though it certainly looked like a proper polecat. And they are a rare sighting dead or alive.

The polecat was trapped to near extinction in the 19th century, but they have recently spread from strongholds in midWales and re-colonised much of southern England, including Devon. One to keep your eyes out for among the grim toll on our roads.