Polecat (?) at Lakes Aquarium 2008

Labelled as European Polecat - but could be a wild-type-looking Ferret. Certainly very tame.

Most likely a Polecat-Ferret rather than a pure Polecat.

Polecat?

There are very few true polecats about,not sure the name of the collection but one in north Devon did exhibit them a few yrs back,be interested to find out were this this animal came from. May be wrong but many yrs ago the Welsh Mountain Zoo had some.The true ones i have come across have always been a little on the wild side and could be handled but more of when it suited the polecat.

The New Forest Otter and Owl Park has some fairly pure looking polecats, and I know that Cotswold Widlife Park, Wildwood, the Chestnut Centre and the British Wildlife Centre hold some.

Having seen Chestnut's being handled, I'd have a few doubts about their purity both on tameness and colouration grounds.

Welsh Mountain's current animals look pretty pure, as do Cotswold's.

This looks like what we call "European ferrets" here in the US. I guess that you guys call them polecats? Are they commonly kept as pets in the UK and in Europe? They seem to be quite common over here, although illegal in California due to hazard that they could become an invasive species. I'm not aware that has actually happened though (yet) anywhere in North America.

Out of curiosity why would an aquarium have a polecat?

The wild form would be called 'European Polecat'; the domestic form are called 'ferrets'.

They're increasingly common here too. Unfortunately the same can't be said for their wild relatives.

It's themed on local waterlife, and has a small section of non-aquatic animals as well.

Thanks for the info Maguari. I we ever domesticated black-footed ferrets over here then we would probably call them polecats

What are the threats to the survival of polecats? General conversion of their habitat to human uses?

It was mainly through extreme persecution from gamekeepers, eventually restricting most of the population to parts of Wales. Since it was given protection they seem to be making a steady recovery and are beginning to spread back through England, but being so hard to study it's hard to get the full picture