Have you seen one of these out and about in Jersey?

Monday 09 February 2015

Ecologists have just completed their latest mammal survey – and they say it looks like it’s curtains for the stoat.

Stoats were once pretty common in the Island, but none have been seen in the wild between the last mammal survey in 2000 and the one that’s just being wrapped up now.

And the States’ principal ecologist John Pinel says that while there’s evidence of their larger cousins ferrets and polecats around the place, it looked as though stoats had died out.

He said: “We have just completed an Island-wide small mammal survey, and we are working on the results of that at the moment.

“Associated with that, last year we did some surveying for ferrets, in the hope that we might turn up some stoats as well.

“We think that stoats are probably extinct here, we certainly haven’t seen any in the last 12 years.

“There are a few ferrets around the place, but those are probably from escapes or intentional releases.”

He said that the state of the small mammal populations in wild areas was a good indicator for the general state of the environment.

And Mr Pinel added that the ferret and polecat population seemed to be feral, rather than wild.

He said: “They are about. They’re not a native animal. There’s plenty out there but that’s probably down to people releasing them or them escaping. They don’t seem to be breeding.

“If your small mammal population is good and stable, that implies their food source is good and stable, so the invertebrates and plants that are necessary for their survival are still doing quite well. Measuring mammals gives you an indication of the health of the eco-system.”