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Mustela putoriusEuropean polecat

By Barbara Lundrigan and Molly Conley

Ge­o­graphic Range

Pole­cats range through­out Eu­rope. Pole­cats are rare in the British Isles, due to human pres­sure, but seem to be in­creas­ing in num­bers in re­cent years.

Pole­cats have been in­tro­duced to New Zealand.

Habi­tat

Pole­cats pre­fer to live along bod­ies of fresh water, in wet­lands, on the edge of forests, or in grass­lands with is­lands of scrub trees.

  • Aquatic Biomes
  • lakes and ponds
  • rivers and streams

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Pole­cats dis­play ex­treme sex­ual di­mor­phism, wherein males can weigh up to twice as much as fe­males and be a third or more longer. They have a coat of creamy-col­ored un­der­fur with black guard­hairs. In win­ter, this coat is thick, smooth and glossy. In sum­mer, after bian­nual shed­ding, the coat is thin and faded and loses the lus­ter of the win­ter coat. Pole­cats have a rac­coon-like dark mask around their eyes, sur­rounded by a white face ac­cented with white-tipped ears. Like all mustelids, pole­cats have a pair of anal glands that emit a strong-smelling se­cre­tion. When pole­cats are ex­cited or threat­ened they re­lease some of the con­tents of these glands.

Pole­cats are lean, slen­der weasel-like crea­tures with short legs and a "bound­ing" gait that is faster and more ef­fi­cient than it ap­pears. Their skulls are slightly "boxy" and more ca­nine in ap­pear­ance that those of the other weasels; their faces more closely re­sem­ble minks than weasels. Like these other mustelids, pole­cats dis­play a "key-lock" for­ma­tion of the jaw, where the ar­tic­u­la­tion be­tween the den­tary and the rest of the skull is nearly sealed off into a per­ma­nent hinge and is very dif­fi­cult to sep­a­rate even after death. This gives the mustelids their amaz­ing tenac­ity of grip dur­ing fights, hunt­ing, and play. Pole­cats and fer­rets can be lifted and sus­pended by what­ever they are grip­ping with their teeth.

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    205 to 1710 g
    7.22 to 60.26 oz

Re­pro­duc­tion

Males in nearby ter­ri­to­ries may com­pete for ac­cess to re­pro­duc­tive fe­males. Cop­u­la­tion ap­pears vi­o­lent, males grab fe­males by the back of the neck and drag her back and forth until she is com­pletely limp.

Pole­cats come into es­trous dur­ing late win­ter. Usu­ally one lit­ter is pro­duced a year though, if that one is lost, it is pos­si­ble for the fe­male to give birth again that sea­son. The 3-7 young are born after a 42 day ges­ta­tion and are weaned after one month. Al­though they are not com­pletely ma­ture until they are around six months old. Ma­ter­nal pro­tec­tion of the young ends at around three months when they reach adult size.

  • Breeding interval
    Births occur once yearly, typically.
  • Breeding season
    Breeding occurs during the winter.
  • Average number of offspring
    3-7
  • Average number of offspring
    7.5
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    42 days
  • Average gestation period
    42 days
    AnAge
  • Average time to independence
    3 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    6 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    312 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    6 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    322 days
    AnAge

Fe­males care for their young until they reach their adult size, at about 3 months old.

  • Parental Investment
  • no parental involvement
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Most mustelids are soli­tary crea­tures, and pole­cats are no ex­cep­tion. Un­less a fe­male has a lit­ter, or is in sea­son, pole­cats will strongly de­fend their ter­ri­tory. They are pri­mar­ily noc­tur­nal al­though fe­males with young have been known to for­age dur­ing the day.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Their sense of vi­sion is not very acute; they rely mainly on their sense of smell to track and kill prey.

Food Habits

Mustela puto­rius is car­niv­o­rous and gen­er­ally preys on ro­dents and rab­bits. It is a tes­ta­ment to the pole­cat's fe­roc­ity that it can and will take down a rab­bit that is much larger than it­self. Should food be­come scarce, pole­cats also eat in­sects and fruit, though they are much less able to han­dle the di­ges­tion of these foods than ei­ther canids or ur­sids.

  • Primary Diet
  • carnivore
    • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • amphibians
  • reptiles
  • eggs
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • Plant Foods
  • fruit

Ecosys­tem Roles

Pole­cats are im­por­tant preda­tors of small mam­mals in the ecosys­tems in which they live.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Eu­ro­pean pole­cats help to con­trol ro­dent pop­u­la­tions. Their do­mes­ti­cated de­scen­dant, the house­hold fer­ret (Mustela puto­rius furo), is a pop­u­lar pet and has been used in hunt­ing for mil­lenia. They have also been hunted for their fur, which is con­sid­ered valu­able, though not as valu­able as that of other mustelids such as mink or er­mine.

  • Positive Impacts
  • pet trade
  • body parts are source of valuable material
  • controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

As with other mam­malian car­ni­vores, pole­cats can be ra­bies vec­tors. They can also carry dis­tem­per and the com­mon cold, caus­ing prob­lems for dogs and hu­mans, re­spec­tively. They can oc­ca­sion­ally dam­age poul­try farms, as they will kill more than they can eat and drag the rest off for later.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Pole­cats are com­mon through­out Eu­rope and are nei­ther threat­ened or en­dan­gered.

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Bar­bara Lun­dri­gan (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity, Molly Con­ley (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity.

Glossary

Australian

Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.

World Map

Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

causes or carries domestic animal disease

either directly causes, or indirectly transmits, a disease to a domestic animal

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

introduced

referring to animal species that have been transported to and established populations in regions outside of their natural range, usually through human action.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

marsh

marshes are wetland areas often dominated by grasses and reeds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

pet trade

the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

tactile

uses touch to communicate

taiga

Coniferous or boreal forest, located in a band across northern North America, Europe, and Asia. This terrestrial biome also occurs at high elevations. Long, cold winters and short, wet summers. Few species of trees are present; these are primarily conifers that grow in dense stands with little undergrowth. Some deciduous trees also may be present.

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

Ref­er­ences

Grz­imek, B. 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. New York; NY: Mc­Graw Hill.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Guide to Mam­mals of the World. Bal­ti­more; MD: Johns Hop­kins Press.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Carnivora carnivores
  • Family Mustelidae badgers, otters, weasels, and relatives
  • Genus Mustela ermines, ferrets, minks, and weasels
  • Species Mustela putorius European polecat

Related Taxa