Six orphaned polecats, who were found in a storage space under a conservatory in Poynton with their dead mother, have been successfully rescued and are now in the care of Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre.
The kits, who are now 6 weeks old, are being weaned and prepared for their return to the wild later in the year. They will be kept in a large outside enclosure with minimum human handling from staff until the beginning of September. This is the traditional time when kits born in the spring start to leave their mother to find their own territories.
The orphans were found mewing on the back lawn of a house in Poynton, near Stockport, on a sunny day at the end of May.
House owner Debra Naden said "They looked hungry and were mewing frantically so I rushed into the house and found some ham which was used to lure four kits out. That's when the RSPCA inspector arrived to help and to take them away for specialist care. The inspector investigated the storage area and found their dead mother and one dead kit, but was convinced she could hear at least one more. So we left food down and waited for an hour or so and another came out. It wasn't until some smelly cat food had been left out that, late in the evening, the sixth and last kit emerged and we captured it."
Lee Stewart, Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre manager, explained that the kits will be with them until September until they identify a suitable release site. They will stay in their outside run until their release, at which point they will be transferred out to a purpose-built release cage. They will remain in the cage for two weeks giving them time to acclimatise to their new surroundings. Following their release, they will continue to feed the polecats for a further two weeks, slowly reducing the amount provided.
About polecats
Polecats (Mustela putorius) were driven to the brink of extinction in Britain early last century after persecution by farmers and gamekeepers. They were limited to a small area of Wales, but can now be found throughout Wales, the Midlands and central southern England and parts of Scotland. They live around five years in the wild and are solitary and mainly nocturnal. They prefer lowland areas such as valleys and farmland with hedgerows and small woods. They mark their territories with a foul smell from the scent glands at the base of their tail. In Shakespearean times, the word 'polecat' was used to describe someone with an equally unpleasant character!
Edited and re-posted from an article on the RSPCA website 28th June 2012. Photo courtesy of RSPCA
