National Polecat Survey 2024-2025 — we’re halfway there!
We are halfway through this citizen science survey — and thanks to members of the public sending in their sightings, we have verified 896 sightings since the survey began in January 2024!
Information provided with the sightings has also given us an insight into the polecat’s year – we have seen an increase in road casualties in the month of March as males travelled to find mates; followed by more live sightings during May as mothers were seen out with their kits; then followed by another unfortunate rise in road casualties as those juveniles dispersed from their family groups. Interesting sightings included groups of kits found by roadsides; juveniles playing on hay bales apparently unconcerned by approaching tractors; and trail cameras capturing interactions with cats, hedgehogs and badgers!
Sightings of polecats are popping up in new areas compared to the previous survey, which suggests that there is a continuing expansion into new areas. There are however still very few records for Scotland and the northern English counties.
There’s still time…
We will continue to collect sightings throughout 2025, and will also add data from organisations such as the Mammal Society and Local Biological Record Centres — all of which will be collated and analysed in a final report on the polecat’s updated distribution and then published in 2026.
If you see a polecat in 2025 or can remember seeing one in 2024 and can recall the date and location, please let us know about it. Sightings can be reported through a new online survey form: Report a polecat sighting
A description of the animal and photos/videos (where available) are helpful for us to verify the sighting. If you’re not sure you saw a polecat, or if it looked polecat-like, still get in touch and we can help with identification: enquiries@vwt.org.uk
Collecting Samples
We are still appealing for hair and whisker samples from dead polecats, which will help with future research into their genetics and diet. We are very grateful to those who stopped to collect samples for us in 2024!
Full sampling instructions available here: Polecat-Sample-Collection-Instructions.pdf
Why a citizen science survey?
The National Polecat Survey has been running since the early 1990s and is the only large-scale monitoring survey for the polecat in Britian. Due to its solitary and secretive nature, the polecat is difficult to monitor with traditional field survey methods such as searches for field signs like scats or footprints. Dedicated trail camera set-ups such as the Mostela or ‘pole-cam’ have been used by scientists to detect the species, but it remains difficult to monitor at a national landscape scale – which is important for a solitary species that uses different habitats and can travel over several kilometres.
Collecting sightings from members of the public is a hugely valuable tool, unlocking data that would take many years and would be an expensive undertaking. Although it provides simple distribution data, much can be learnt from this citizen science survey. For example, we can detect trends in road mortality and compare polecat distribution with different environmental factors, such as habitat type and connectivity. The more we know about a species, the better informed our conservation actions can be.
Since the survey began a total of 4,966 records have been collected during VWT’s National Polecat Surveys. Thank you to all the citizen scientists that have taken part!
Katherine McBride — VWT’s Carnivore Conservation Officer
Main photo: Polecat ©Rachel Jones