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I saw a mustelid this morning. Well, what I actually saw was a dark reddish brownish thing that scuttled across the path at top speed. It was too small and the legs were too short and it was generally the wrong shape to be a fox, so I reckon that gives me stoat, feral ferret or naturalised mink as the likely options, given that polecats and pinemartens are extinct in this area* and the environment kind of wrong for them anyway.
Didn't seem to have any white on it and it looked a bit big for a stoat (definitely too big for a weasel), and googleing doesn't suggest any local colonies of feral ferrets, so I'm thinking probably mink? Though it wasn't near water (maybe a couple of miles from the River Tamar), it was on the side of a hill with lots of gorse and rabbits, so plenty to eat and plenty of cover.
*though I've always thought that searching the whole of Devon and Cornwall for something the size of a polecat to check it's not there would be one hell of a job.
Didn't seem to have any white on it and it looked a bit big for a stoat (definitely too big for a weasel), and googleing doesn't suggest any local colonies of feral ferrets, so I'm thinking probably mink? Though it wasn't near water (maybe a couple of miles from the River Tamar), it was on the side of a hill with lots of gorse and rabbits, so plenty to eat and plenty of cover.
*though I've always thought that searching the whole of Devon and Cornwall for something the size of a polecat to check it's not there would be one hell of a job.
