NT2470 : Death in suburbia - 2
taken 5 years ago, near to Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland
Arriving home from a short expedition, and reversing into my drive, I noticed some commotion in a neighbour's garden, involving Magpies, Crows and a struggling grey fluffy ball which I thought was a Grey Squirrel. I stopped and watched, and realised it was a conflict between a Stoat and a Rabbit. Both Crows and Magpies were flapping around and squawking; after about 4 minutes the struggling stopped, and the Stoat ran off, leaving a motionless corpse on the path. I was able to get out of the car and get a bit nearer. After couple of minutes the Stoat returned and began to haul the corpse away, with great difficulty. I watched for 15 minutes more, during which time it had been dragged about 10m. Interestingly, the body soon became quite stiff, so difficult to manoeuvre along the hedge base. There was an interlude when, while the Stoat was away, a Crow had a go at pecking the Rabbit's eye. These photos are some of 32 taken during my 23 minutes of observation. An hour later the body was gone.