What is the National Polecat Survey and who is Vincent Wildlife Trust?
The National Polecat Survey is a citizen science survey appealing to members of the public to submit sightings of polecats and polecat-type animals in Britain. Polecats are an understudied and elusive carnivore in Britain, and by collecting records of polecat sightings we can build on our knowledge of current polecat distribution, hybridisation with ferrets, and threats faced. All records submitted to the survey will be used to produce a report on polecat distribution and status in Britain.
We are running the survey between 2024 and until the end of 2025. This is the fourth national survey Vincent Wildlife Trust has undertaken, and the only national survey dedicated to polecats! The last survey was undertaken approximately 10 years ago.
Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) is a mammal conservation non-profit organisation that has been at the forefront of wildlife conservation for more than 45 years. Our work is focused on British and Irish mammals and is currently centred around a small number of carnivores and the rarer bat species. VWT was founded in 1975 by the late Hon Vincent Weir, a highly accomplished naturalist and philanthropist. Our vision is that VWT is a catalyst for mammal conservation and our mission is to conserve threatened mammals by leading the way with scientifically sound conservation work.
Scientific evidence is at the heart of everything we do at VWT. To read our report from the last National Polecat Survey visit:
https://www.vwt.org.uk/downloads/croose-e-2016-the-distribution-and-status-of-the-polecat-mustela-putorius-in-britain-2014-2015/
