The Stoat is a curious and active mammal found throughout the country on farmlands, woodlands, marshes and moors. It is a member of the Weasel family and is sometimes known as the ‘Short-tailed Weasel’.

The Stoat has a slender reddish-brown body and its throat, chest and belly are a cream-white colour. It has a long reddish-brown tail that is bushy and always has a black tip. Sometimes a Stoat can turn white in winter, but its tail still keeps the black tip. The Stoat has a long neck and a pointed face with long whiskers on either side. It also has large round ears and large, black protruding eyes.

Stoats often stand on their hind legs so they can scan and smell their surroundings better and sometimes they climb up trees to steal eggs. They hunt day and night and often run in a zigzag pattern when they go looking for food. They mainly eat rabbits, but they also eat voles, rats, birds and fruit. Stoats rest and sleep in the burrows of animals they have previously hunted and killed.