Which animal did I just see??

[abigailthespiderinthehat]

Was driving by a small forest area and I had to slow down to avoid running over two very small animals. They were red and long and skinny. Almost like a fluffy pipe cleaner on legs! Any ideas what they could be?

I had no idea we had mink in Durham

Mink are pretty common lots of places, should probably do more to get rid of them to save the water voles, seen them on the Thames in south west London, when I first saw it I was getting all excited about a small Otter.

shannith there seems to be a bit of a crowd at this coat stand. Did you use the otter one?

Coat fully on and out the door.

@KitMarlowesCodpieceOfthigh

You'll be able to tell the difference. One's weaselly identified. The other's stoatally different.

Where are you going so fast? That was genius

I had a weasel in my bedroom once. I had a cabin bed and was doing my homework, saw movement and yelled for my dad. It had taken refuge under the wardrobe. We had cats. Although that's not as bad as the time I had a rat in my piano.

@justanotherneighinparadise

I remember when I first saw a weasel running across the road I thought I’d seen an alien! They ran with an arched back so they looked even crazier.

😂 An alien! That's exactly what I said to my dd- we were slightly disappointed it must have been a boring old weasel!

Although still not 100% convinced they really were weasels - they were so small! No weasel/stoat/pine marten photos really look like what I saw. Should've stuck to my first thought... aliens!

Sounds like a weasel...
We had a mink in our garden a few days ago!

@AlwaysLatte

Sounds like a weasel... We had a mink in our garden a few days ago!

that's one animal I wouldn't want in my garden 😢

Weasels are really tiny, body length is only 17-22cm. Stoats are a bit bigger, up to 30cm. Stoats have a black tip on their tail and run with a more bounding action, arching their back, whereas weasels kind of scuttle closer to the ground with straight backs. Mink are bigger, heavier and dark brown in colour rather than reddish brown, and pine martens are many times bigger - weasels weigh 50-130g whereas an adult marten is 1-2kg.

[quote InterstellarDrifter]@KitMarlowesCodpieceOfthigh I did but I just had to google pine marten because I’d only vaguely heard of them and assumed they were it’s, like house martins. So, I don’t know if you want my appreciation [/quote]
I'll take any appreciation

Thank You guys for all the funny comments. You’ve cheered me up.😊