I subscribe to the ferret genetics list serve, and there happened to
be a discussion about color in ferrets The red coloration of European
polecats was mentioned. Cutting a long story short I went to a site -
The Vincent Wildlife Trust - to see what they had on polecat surveys
in the UK.

One of the downloadable documents was "Polecat and mink abundance
monitoring feedback for recorders from the Vincent Wildlife Trust ".
Turns out they look at roadkill. Which would be a good method of
assessing numbers if you drive the same route and keep the conditions
as similar as possible from year to year. Which they try to do.

In the December 2009 report, in one section it mentions that the number
of dead polecats seen was remarkably high in 2009, despite the fact
that the survey period was halved to only one month. It then says the
"Golden Polesplat" award this year goes to Anna McCann who recorded a
staggering16 polecat road casualties. They did not say where Anna
lived.

For those interested the home page is at http://www.vwt.org.uk/ and
for the report, go to Free Downloads, and under polecats click on the
Polecat abundance monitoring report. There are some other fascinating
pdf's as well - I plan to read "Pine Marten - On the Origin of Faeces"
tonight. Great stuff. Brits have a great sense of humor.

Meryl

[Posted in FML 6676]