Anja Murray: If you manage to spot a stoat, let the first-ever Irish stoat survey know

Last week I saw a stoat scurrying across a remote boreen, recognisable by its small size; rich, chestnut brown fur; black tail tip; and characteristically arched-back bounding movement. It bounced across the quiet road, briefly pausing before weaving its way into the roadside hedge, where no doubt, any roosting songbirds would have called out to warn their kin of this incoming predator.

Stoats are expert hunters — their long and sinuous little bodies carry them discreetly through tall grass, over stone walls and even up through the canopies of trees. They have exceptionally short legs, making them agile in a range of habitat types, and discreet in keeping low to the ground. Their heads are small with rounded ears, big dark eyes and long generous whiskers that help them sense what’s going on around them.

People often refer to stoats as weasels, though Ireland has never had weasels. Stoats are related to weasels, otters, badgers and pine martens. They are all members of the family called ‘mustelids’, and stoats are the smallest of these, like a very long rat or a small cat.

Through the summer months, stoat mothers have been nursing this year’s young with her milk, and feeding them with meat as they grow. Now, in September, young stoats are fully weaned and approaching adult size. At first, they hunt in a family group, learning the skills they need to pursue their prey, becoming attuned to utilising their excellent sight, hearing and sense of smell. By now, the young are dispersing and adapting to independent living.

Once they become adept at hunting, stoats are famously determined and tenacious in pursuit of prey animals. Mostly they catch and eat rabbits, often much larger than themselves, but rats, birds, shrews, mice and voles are also part of a stoat’s regular diet. Once they pick up the scent of a prey species to pursue, a stoat will track this particular target animal across fields and through hedges, up trees and over walls, persistently maintaining focus and avoiding all interruptions or distractions along the way, until they catch their prey. This can even mean that a stoat will track one particular rabbit right through a warren full of rabbits, completely ignoring all the other rabbits along the way, intent only on the one.

In Autumn, stoats supplement their diet with the vitamin-rich wild fruits bursting from hedges and woodlands.

Because these are such adaptable little animals, it seems unlikely that they are facing any major conservation challenges, though, in truth, we don’t really know. Just like every other animal, stoats are part of hugely complex interdependent webs of life.

There has never been a national stoat survey and little is known about their population and distribution in Ireland. Part of the reason is that this elusive species is hard to track and monitor. But Irish stoats are a unique species, having evolved distinctive genetic traits over millennia to such an extent that Irish stoats are now recognized as s subspecies in their own right. The Irish Stoat, Mustela erminea Hibernica, is endemic to the islands of Ireland and the Isle of Man. Fossilised stoat bones that are more than 30,000 years old have been found in caves in County Cork, making this one of Ireland’s longest-established mammal species.

The main difference between Irish stoats and their British and continental cousins is that Irish stoats keep their rich brown colouring throughout the year, while British and European stoats turn white in winter. This difference is an example of island evolution: over time they have adapted to our less snowy climate so they don't need to blend in with the whites of a winter landscape as they go about their hunting forays. The pale winter coats of continental stoats were prized through medieval times as ‘ermine’, a fur that was an exclusive status symbol of medieval kings and bishops.

The uniqueness of Irish stoats means it is especially welcome news that the first national stoat survey got underway earlier this year, using camera-traps to determine their presence in each area surveyed. This survey is run by the Vincent Wildlife Trust in partnership with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, the University of Galway, and the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording in Northern Ireland and will run until the end of 2024. As well as using camera traps to find out more about where stoats are present and in what quantities, the scientists behind the Irish Stoat Survey are also seeking sightings from the public.

If you happen to see a stoat, either alive or dead, you can submit your sighting here.
Every sighting will be fed into the database and will help further our understanding of these gorgeous little animals.