Mystery creature Can you help please?

[montalbano]

Found dead in garden, 6 inches long, mouselike ears, large feet, apricot coloured fur and large head like a hamster. Does not resemble any images of a common hamster however.

[tiggerblue10]

Vole maybe?

[Avatar]

Brown Rat?

[Graham-W]

Weasel, Stoat, Young Ferret??

[Ratty2E]

Does it have a tail? Do you live near any water? Could be a water vole although they have small hairy ears and are not normally apricot colour. Could it be a young guinea pig that a fox or ferret has taken from a hutch? It's hard to say without seeing it.

[sophie_1003]

Sounds far too big to be a hamster, is it not a chinchilla?

[sallybb]

on the BBC website homepage , There is picture of Chris Packham holding a water vole. Gingery colour, could it be ?

[Prudie]

Sounds definitely like a stoat or weasel (or an escaped ferret). Does it have a tail and is it slender in the body? hamsters don't have any tails to speak of (and 6" would be a whopper)

[Chaffinch]

lol Purdie..........................sorry had to be said

[vulcan]

A Weasel is weasily identified, a Stoat is stotally different.

[Robinia]

I guess we'll never know as sadly montalbano has never replied on any of her own threads (or other people's) :o(