SUPPOSED POLECATS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 June 1932, Page 10

SUPPOSED POLECATS

REPORTED NEAR PAG LAN ' A report that polecats had been seen recently in the Raglan district has been received from a correspondent, who stated he killed one after it bad engaged in a light with a dog, while ftthers had been seen about his property (reports the “Press”). He declared that a number of liens had been killed, supposedly by polecats, about the district, and three animals believed to be polecats had been trapped. ... *-Describing the animal killed during the light with the dog, the correspondent stated it was 2oin from nose, to the

tip of the tail, while it weighed nearly •pill). The animal had a characteristic odour, and after similar animals had visited hen-houses the birds refused to roost in them, preferring to roost in the open. One supposed polecat was seen crossing a road, and it trotted with an action like a cat, not with the hounding fox-like gait of a ferret. Tins’ animal appeared to he about .'li t long. In conclusion, Hie correspondent stated iliat. the animals had been in evidence only during the past, year, and it was thought in the district that they had been introduced inlo New Zealand while young in mistake for fulh’-grown ferrets. An oflieial of the Agricultural Department i» Auckland, to whom the report was referred, said the importation

of polecats into the Dominion had never i.been permitted. About fifty years ago it had been proposed to allow the introduction of polecats and foxes, but there was so much opposition that they i' were both prohibited. As far as lie . knew, no ferrets had been imported to i Auckland for about thirty years. ,j It was probable that, the animals , were large, brown buck ferrets, which 1 were coloured like polecats, and which ; at times weighed -lib, while they would i grow over 2ft long. Largo wild forl rets, which were very ferocious, would attack a dog, and they Were freipiently ’ known to kill poultry. If polo- • eats were at large it was almost certain that they would have„ attacked • sheep and lambs, which ferrets had . never been known to do. He had i never heard of a true polecat being seen in New Zealand.