SIR - Last Wednesday, while walking along the footpath towards Malham Tarn, I spotted a small, sinuous, snow-white ‘weasel’ briskly hunting for prey along the mossy roadside drystone wall, before it crossed the road in front of a parked car and disappeared into the next field. Later the car occupant and I confirmed that we had both seen it, and we weren’t hallucinating! Firstly, completely white weasels or stoats are almost unheard of in England. But was it a weasel and not a stoat. It was definitely too small to be a ferret. I have observed stoats hunting and they have a more ‘prancing’ gait, head up, with prominent ears. This Mustelid ‘hugged’ the wall, and was definitely smaller and more sinuous. Any other sightings of the white weasel or is it an ermine?

John Van der Gucht

Clayton Hall Road

Cross Hills