STOAT: predator that caused a national outcry

SLEEK and deadly, the stoat has a particularly fiendish trick up its sleeve when it wants to catch a rabbit - hypnotism.

At least, that is what it often seems to use when it creeps closer to any young, inexperienced animal and grabs its attention.

Gazing into its victim's eyes, sometimes almost nose to nose, it will weave and bob its head until the prey forgets about fleeing and is somehow lulled into dropping its defences.

The stoat then pounces and a crushing bite to the neck is delivered with lightning speed.

Birds, rats and mice are also on the menu of this voracious hunter but it can survive on insects when times are hard and other prey is scarce. Larger than its equally ferocious cousin, the weasel, a stoat first tracks its quarry by scent before pursuing it by sight.

Despite its short, stubby legs, a stoat can race along at 20mph, its distinctive chesnut and white body constantly thrown forward in a series of leaps and bounds.

Few animals manage to outrun it in a straight sprint.

Death is almost inevitable for any creature too slow to climb, fly away or scurry down a tinier hole than the slim stoat itself can squeeze into.

Stoats are so savage they can easily overwhelm animals more than twice their own size.

The male stoat is just 13 inches long from the tip of his inquisitive nose to the end of his black-tipped tail.

Females are smaller and thinner but equally feared as hunters and sporting the same colouring.

The two sexes come together briefly to breed, after which six or so fierce youngsters emerge.

These can often only be told apart from weasels by their black tail-tips.

The voraciousness of stoats was underlined recently by a desperate move to control them - not here, but in New Zealand.

Stoats and weasels were introduced there from Europe in the 19th century to control burgeoning rabbit numbers.

However, so successful have they become that they are now threatening the survival of many indigenous species.

Among these is New Zealand's national bird, the flightless long-beaked kiwi.

As he unveiled a multi-million dollar fightback fund, New Zealand's Conservation Minister Nick Smith admitted:"Stoats are public enemy number one for our bird life. They are are decimating kiwi populations. "Every year, 15,000 kiwi chicks - 60 per cent of those born - are killed by stoats. Kiwi will not survive on the North and South Islands unless we find an effective way to stop this.

"New Zealand must save the unique species that help give us our sense of national identity. A stoat research budget is our best hope for saving our kiwi."

Fearsome as they are, it still seems bizarre that stoats could virtually cause a national identity crisis.