Road Kill

I was sitting in my car in a lay by on a quiet country lane waiting for a Little Owl to land on its favourite perch when suddenly a Rabbit ran out into the road. It soon became apparent it was being attacked by a Stoat (Mustela erminea). The drama unfolded as the Rabbit desperately tried to shake the Stoat off its back as it sunk it’s razor sharp teeth into its neck. Although it had some success the Stoat was persistent and kept up the attack. The sound of the Rabbit in distress cut through the quietness like the cry of a baby with cholic. With a final fatal bite everything fell silent as the Stoat put the rabbit out of its misery leaving its prey dead in the middle of the road.
Whilst all this was going on I moved in as close as possible to the action and lay in a prone position on the road resting the foot of my camera on the tarmac. The Stoat was a little uneasy about my presence at first however after working so hard to kill its prey it had no intention of abandoning it. Instead, it took on the Herculean task of dragging the carcass across the road. It achieved this inch by inch by adopting a series of techniques one of which was locking its jaws onto the Rabbit’s fur and jumping backwards whilst kicking out its hind legs. I took several more images as it fed in the relative safety of the verge.