Park residents Sunday 14th April 2019
When recording the presence of wildlife at a location there are times when the first evidence comes from finding the corpse of an individual. So it was this weekend when Our Campsite Warden asked me to identify a dead mammal that a visitor had reported to her. When I was presented with what was clearly a full poo bag I did check my qualifications, forensic science is not amongst them... in fact what was inside was a rather splendid, but sadly deceased male POLECAT. Now here we need to consider the possibility that it was a domesticated ferret-polecat but immediately it was obvious by its size, condition and pelage that we had the real thing. The presence of Polecats has long been suspected with odd reports from the nature reserve and from the forest. I took the relevent measurements, tail, hindfoot, nose to body etc and all fitted in the range for a male Polecat in the welsh population. Formidable claws A sad sight but useful information gained, the wind was blowing th