European polecat populations. Compared to other British carnivores, such as otters and badgers, the polecat has received little exposure in popular media. A study conducted on rural school children showed only 3.8% of the surveyed children could identify polecats in photographs, whereas 83.7% correctly identified otters. A caged polecat appears as a key character of Saki's short story "Sredni Vashtar". European polecat The European polecat ("Mustela putorius") – also known as the common ferret, black or forest polecat, or fitch (as well as some other names) – is a species of mustelid native to western Eurasia and north Morocco. It is of
Polecat–mink hybrid than to the polecat, as they feed predominantly on frogs. During the winter, their diet overlaps more with that of the polecat, and they eat a larger proportion of rodents than in the summer, although they still rely heavily on frogs and rarely scavenge off ungulate carcasses as the polecat does. Polecat–mink hybrid A polecat–mink hybrid, also known as "khor'-tumak" by furriers and "khonorik" by fanciers, is a hybrid between a European polecat ("Mustela putorius") and a European mink ("M. lutreola"). Such hybridisation is very rare in the wild, and typically only occurs where European mink are declining. The two