Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

[John Liddle]

....and I'm still not sure whether it is a ferret or a mink - I favour the former since I was able to get close enough to touch it, although it was not keen on being captured. However, I don't know anyone within reasonable distance of us who keeps ferrets.

It clearly has a wound below its right eye, and its back legs seemed a little shaky, so it has either been fighting or hit by a vehicle perhaps.

Having sought advice from the local fount of all knowledge (the barbers) I was told to throw a sack over it to capture it. Unfortunately, by the time I had found anything remotely suitable, it seemed to have wandered off.

So it remains an unexpected but interesting mystery.

Ferret or Mink 01 by John Liddle, on Flickr

Ferret or Mink 02 by John Liddle, on Flickr

[lunarbo]

Re: Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

Great pics- fortunate to be in the right place with a loaded & correctly lensed up camera.

I await with interest the knowledgeable togs on here to tell us what it is!

[Lepus]

Re: Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

Visually there is nothing to say it`s not a Mink , though I would be amazed if a wild mink let you touch it , and let you keep your hands in tact . Shame it`s been injured , coincidentally I see what I think was a dead Polecat on the roadside a few weeks back . Well done for getting the photos , so often we are not prepared for such happenings .

[Richard W]

Re: Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

It doesn't look much like a ferret, which one would expect to have more white, or at least pale, colour on the head. Seems like a mink, perhaps its apparent tameness was down to the fact that it had been injured, perhaps with some concussion or similar. Not a good idea to touch it, both animals can give a nasty bite very quickly, which could easily become infected.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

Great shot John. Well done. Looks as if the animal has been in some sort of a fight- some wounds under it's right eye.

[John Liddle]

Re: Well I didn't expect to see this in the garden.....

Barbara, Fallow, Richard & Nathaniel - thanks for looking and commenting.

I am coming round to the view that it was a mink, but I am surprised that one should be in our patch - the nearest significant body of water is 2km away, although we do have a small stream within a couple of hundred yards.

I shall have to warn my neighbour who keeps a few chickens!