Raccoon dogs that may harbour tapeworms and rabies are threatening to invade Sweden from Denmark, posing a serious risk to its wildlife. . . .The price of neutrality:
Their European population now extends from Italy in the south to Finland in the north where they have decimated populations of frogs and ground-nesting birds. In Finland 100,000 raccoon dogs are shot every year.
Rarely encountered in the flesh, but common in country tales, stoat packs have long hunted the borderland between folklore and natural history. Thirty years after Sir Alfred's alarming experience, a similar incident was reported by RS Hays in The Field:
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"Close to the path there was the bole of an uprooted pine tree full of holes. 'From practically every hole,' said the doctor, 'there was a stoat's head peering out at me - possibly 15 or 20 in all.' He struck at them with his gaff and they set up 'a great chattering and squawking', but he failed to hit any of them and succeeded only in bending his gaff. 'As they appeared to be working themselves up to the point of attack,' he admitted, 'I decided to retire in haste.'"
The doctor's disconcerting realisation that every crevice was filling with a stoat's face was echoed by the experience of the writer and naturalist H Mortimer Batten:
"I went into a ruined house called Coltgarth, not far from Burnsall village, and on entering became aware of a hissing and chattering in the wall all round me, and on looking up saw the heads of stoats protruding from numerous crannies above, all very resentful of my presence. It would not be pleasant to be mobbed by such a gathering…"
The stoat (Mustela erminea) is the most enigmatic of the mustelidae - the family that includes weasels, ferrets, martens and otters. We are familiar with the paralysis it can inflict on rabbits, even at some distance, without knowing quite how it does it. H Mortimer Batten related an example in his book Habits and Characters of British Wild Animals, first published in the 1920s:
"Presently I saw a rabbit quite close to me flatten down, flat as a rag, its eyes wide with terror. I guessed what was afoot, and a few seconds later a stoat came out of the wall and sat upright on a flat stone staring at the rabbit. He was obviously gloating over it, knowing it to be helpless, and every now and then he jerked his black-tipped tail into the air in a curiously excitable manner. Then he jumped off the stone and made straight for the rabbit, landing on its back and tearing its ears with his teeth. He also tore at it with his claws, making no attempt to kill it, but torturing it as a cat tortures a mouse. But the rabbit remained motionless, uttering never a sound, so the stoat returned to its perch on the stone and again glared at it in luxurious cruelty…"
This went on several times until Batten could stand it no longer and shot the stoat.
