Meet the Animals

This year Simon and his team have been set possibly his hardest Springwatch wildlife challenge yet: to film a polecat in Wales.

Tell us about your polecat sightings and help us map their distribution.

Missed something? Keep up to date with Simon's challenge here.

Species information

Polecats are members of the weasel family. They have dark brown outer fur with a distinctive white face mask and white tipped ears. They will readily mate with escaped ferrets. After all the ferret is the domesticated polecat.

Reaching around half a metre long, the polecat is a streamline predator, joyfully hunting down and killing small mammals, game birds, frogs or even insects; sometimes just for fun! Its taste for blood led to widespread persecution and almost total extinction from our countryside. Numbers have been increasingly since last century, however, with a recent survey showing the population spreading out of its stronghold in Wales and into England.

They're primarily nocturnal and solitary animals so difficult to see. More common than sighting them is smelling them. Their distinctive strong musky scent is used to mark territorial boundaries or when threatened.

How to help

Driving carefully on country roads during dusk will help to avoid road casualties. Polecats are still affected by the use of rodenticides in their food.

Join your local Wildlife Trust to find out more about the polecats in your area.

Tuesday 9th June

Simon finally completed his mission to film a wild polecat. This definitely proved to be his hardest Springwatch challenge to date. See the footage for yourself.

Help us

Tell us about your polecat sightings and help map the polecat spread out of Wales.

Monday 25th May

Do these eyes in the dark belong to a polecat? Has Simon managed to film one already? - You decide.