Rat V Stoat, and the winner is.

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Had a bit of a surprise the other morning what i thought were 2 stoats having a game in the lane outside my house turned out to be a Stoat and a big Rat having a fight to the death. They were so ingrossed in this that they ignored me leaning over my wall with my phone and take a couple of pictures.

About Even

Stoat getting the upper hand

And the winner is: Mr Stoat
[IMG]http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx184/tollgatefarm/rat3.jpg
After this he dragged the rat away into a hedge.

 

[sxmolloy]

Wow, lucky to witness that.

 

[v-ness]

Awesome!

Ness

 

[Retired Member southey]

Good effort stoaty! nice pics chap lucky find indeed,

 

[Mojoracinguk]

Is it stoats I saw on a documentry hunting rabbits or was it weasels? (was defo one of the two as they were so small)
It was amazing ....they chased the rabbits down until they were tired and then jumped on the back and rode them like jockeys until they managed to bite the back of the neck.....this reminds me of that.

How tanatious!

 

[Geoff Dann]

Insane stoat vs. rabbit. And the winner is....?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZg9AN-QQc

 

[ex-member Raikey]

awesome,...

always good to see stuff like this, let alone manage to take piccies!

i once saw a mink (we were overrun at one point from a mink farm mass escape) tackling a mallard on the edge of the water on some local NCB land,



it was before mobiles were invented tho,...

i did try capturing the image on my string and yogurt pot set up but it never came out

 

[Andy B]

Now thats a rat. Scary big bloke aint he.

 

[British Red]

Stoats are wonderful wee things. Hard as nails - they will kill things three times their own size. Had one run right up to me a while ago - had a camera in my hand at the time too which was lucky!

 

[FerlasDave]

Not quite a stoat but heres an awesome video of a weasel. One of my favourite little mammals.

http://www.arkive.org/weasel/mustela-nivalis/video-09.html

Good website too.

 

[ged]

The rat never had a chance.

 

[JonathanD]

Great pics, you lucky dude.

 

[Loenja]

your soo lucky its unbelievable....

 

[Paul_B]

I once watched a shrew (one of the larger ones) snuffle through (heard it first before seeing it) the undergrowth then cross diagonallly across the road before snuffling through the undergrowth on the other side as it followed the road along. It was just outside the driveway to the NT campsite at Wasdale Head. Anyway I was about to follow it to try to get another glimpse and Iheard another noise from the direction the shrew had come from. I was absolutely amazed to see a stoat of weasel follow the exact path of the shrew. Anyway I said to myself the shrew's a gonner. Sure enough 20 seconds or so later there was a loud squeaking and squealing noise and silence then a sound of eating. Now I never saw any of those animals again so I think I amsafe in assuming the shrew got it.

BTW since I am not up on mammals I could have got my stoats and weasels mixed up. I thought it was a weasel because it was stoatily different fromthe one in that video clip. (IGMC). Anyway it was not as white underneath and I thought it was rather small too. The shrew could have been something else too but it had the longer snout of a shrew but was bigger than I thought shrews got. I always thought shrews were tiny things this was slightly bigger than a pet mouse or gerbil I think. Still it beats the time I had to stop my car and wait for a mole to cross the road once. I kid you not a mole crossing the road. And it wasn't stapled to the chicken or some other joke.

 

[Paul_B]

I also saw another weasel/stoat when I was trapped on the side of a Lakeland crag with a smached up hand. It was working its way along the various ledges on the opposite side of the chimney from us. Probably looking for nests as it was Mayday bank holiday weekend. It kind of helped with the boredom while the MRT came for me and another injured mate. Entertaining things really. Much better than the mink I spotted on the side of the River Lune when I was kayaking upstream to the rapids, wiers and playspots. Apparently there was a mink farm near Garstang and some idiot animal rights group let them all out years ago. They bred and spread all over that area. Two were seen going into the parents of a mates mate canla boat then coming out half an hour later. The owners came back and the damage paid for by their insurers was into 5 figures!! Half an hour and two mink wrecked the insides. They must have got in then couldn't find the way out I guess. At least the mink populations are supposed to be dropping. One theory is its down to the spread of otters now that our rivers are getting cleaner. The otters are bigger I guess and out compete even mink on the river and on the banks. I hope so. I also hope that no more mink farms get their animals released again. Ecological problems caused by well meaning, brainwashed and ignorant people is something we can do without.

 

[ged]

http://www.wildlifebritain.com/stoatorweasel.php

 

[Man of Tanith]

Those are some fantastic photo's mate
as others have said you are very lucky to have witnessed that and even luckier to get pictures

 

[Chinkapin]

I once saw a shrew kill a lizzard that was about 3 or 4 times its size. One other time I saw a king snake constrict a copperhead to death. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera either time. sigh!

 

[tobes01]

Top pictures. A few years back I had the good fortune to watch a stoat dance in front of a cock pheasant, leaping from side to side to 'hypnotise' it. Quite amazing.

Sadly this was on a shoot day, so the next thing that happened was the old keeper nailed the stoat with his 12 bore from 50yds away (damndest shot I ever saw). Followed by a big toothless smile from him and a deep hampshire grumble to the effect of "yon bugger's been 'avin moi poults..."

 

[Bushwhacker]

BTW since I am not up on mammals I could have got my stoats and weasels mixed up.

The key identifier is that the stoat has a black tip on its tail.