Bog Myrtle & Peat

The ferrets have been back in action; this time under a cattle shed outside Dumfries. Gradual chipping away during generations of rabbit excavation have meant that a large corner of  concrete flooring is in real danger of collapsing into the hollow warren cleared by the stubborn bunnies. Before anything can be done to support the floor, the unwanted guests needed to be evicted.

Within seconds of putting the first ferret to ground, there were some almighty thumps from beneath the concrete floor of the shed. I had carefully positioned the purse nets over the main exit points, but when a large buck rabbit came bursting out from cover, he found my arrangements sadly wanting. Stupidly, I had forgotten to check that the purse strings were running smoothly, and while he danced for a moment in the net, it didn’t close around him. He made off into the distance like a bolt of fluffy lightning while the ferret returned under the shed for round two.

As I squatted down to reset the net, a second rabbit appeared at the mouth of the hole, saw me and ducked back inside. He was just eighteen inches away, and clearly caught between me and a rampant ferret. It didn’t take more than a few seconds to manoever my arm into the hole and lift him out. As soon as he had been dispatched, I put the rabbit on the ground and the ferret latched on to its neck and simply would not let go. Their instinct to kill is terrifyingly strong; they are clearly no longer the helpless kits I brought back from Warwick in July!

An hour later, on a hillside above the Solway Firth, the ferrets struck again, bolting another large buck rabbit directly into one of my carefully set nets. It was the first time that they had caused a rabbit to be caught in a net, and it was a real thrill to see everything work according to plan. Ferreting has to be one of the purest and most exciting fieldsports in Britain. Raising and getting to know your own ferrets, then seeing them exercising their natural behaviour in the wild is a buzz like no other, and knowing that the job can be done efficiently and humanely is a major perk. There is no risk of wounding animals; they either escape unscathed or receive a short, sharp blow to the neck delivered by experienced human hands.

In inaccessible situations where rabbits have become a pain like that under the cow shed, ferrets are the only way of dealing with them. From what I could tell, my ferrets were more than happy to help…