The Return of the Bandit

A stealthy figure is making its way across the Cheshire countryside. A dark mask conceals its face as it slinks through the undergrowth. But don’t panic, this is no human villain, but the polecat, part of our native fauna which has been missing for many decades, but it now staging a come-back.

The polecat, scientific name Mustela putorius, is a member of the weasel family: its other relatives include the stoat, badger and otter. It shares the weasel-family body shape – long and thin with short legs, and is easily recognisable by the black and white face. This colouring can vary through the year, but a white patch around the muzzle is clearly visible, as are the white ear tips. The neck, legs and tail are black, but on the body the long dark guard hairs are usually fluffed up enough to show the buff under-fur beneath, giving it a two-tone appearance.

A Bad Reputation
Through much of history the polecat has had a bad reputation. The name comes from the French poule-chat, meaning ‘chicken cat’ due to its reputation as a killer of poultry. It was also known as a ‘foulmart’ owing to the stench it can produce (its relative the pine marten was known as the ‘sweetmart’). The foul smell is a secretion produced as a defensive mechanism, usually by frightened or injured animals. As an indication of the animal’s bad image, in Shakespeare’s time ‘polecat’ was used to indicate vagabonds and prostitutes.

As a consequence the polecat has been persecuted since medieval times, often with a bounty on its head. Yet it survived until the late 1800’s, which saw the rise of the great sporting estates and the associated game keepers. By 1915 they only survived in any number in a small mountainous area of central Wales. The polecat was saved by the First World War: many game-keepers left to join the forces, and estate management was never again as extensive.

Through the second half of the 20th century the polecat gradually re-colonised the rest of Wales, then began to move into the English border counties. There have been re-introductions into Cumbria and parts of Scotland, but we can be reasonable certain that the polecats in Cheshire are natural colonists from the west.

Current status
The polecat now occurs across Cheshire, although its distribution is patchy in places and total numbers are unknown. It appears to be very vulnerable to road accidents, and the majority of sightings are of copses by the road. However in some areas they are not very wary of humans and will come into gardens, presumably scavenging for food. We would still like to know more about their distribution, so if you think you have seen a polecat we would very much like to hear about it. Contact CWT on 01270 610180 or e-mail

A New Image
Is the polecat as bad as it has been portrayed? True they will take poultry or eggs if they can. But this is only a small part of a varied diet. Their principle prey is rabbits, and they will also use rabbit burrows as dens. They also hunt rats, and will come into farmyards to do so. Other foods include frogs, earthworms and carrion.
The polecat has a very similar diet and lifestyle to the American mink, and there is some evidence that as polecat numbers have increased, so the mink has declined (otters are contributing to the decline of mink in a similar manner).

This article originally appeared in The Grebe, Summer 2006