The single stoat reported on the island of Rousay has been trapped and removed, thanks to the hard work of trappers and local volunteers brought together by the Orkney Native Wildlife Project.
Since the first reports of a potential stoat in Rousay in April 2026, the ONWP has been coordinating the biosecurity response to this incursion. Stoat presence was confirmed by a trail camera image captured near Muckle Water in May.
The response has involved targeted trapping, dog searches, AI-assisted trail cameras, and other monitoring tools, and support from trained local biosecurity volunteers from the Rousay community.
The stoat was found in a trap near the Loch of Loomachun on 9 October. On examination, this animal turned out to be a lone male.
This is in line with expectations based on evidence from stoat behaviour over the last few months and DNA extracted from scat (faeces), which confirmed the presence of a male stoat.
There are currently no signs of female stoats breeding in Rousay or a stoat population establishing itself outside the Orkney Mainland. Rather, the project is increasingly confident that this incursion was limited to a single animal. Following extensive efforts by both the project team and the local community, this stoat has been caught before it could seriously harm native wildlife on the island.
Alice Head-Rapson, an ONWP trapper who set the trap box that caught the stoat, said: “This incursion response was a test of our skills, but everybody at the project stepped up to meet the moment.
“My teammate, Benjy, and I spent the summer and autumn monitoring as much of Rousay as we can and expanding our trap networks, with a focus on sighting hotspots like the Loch of Loomachun. Our work has certainly paid off! It’s still important we guarantee with complete confidence that the stoat we’ve trapped was the only one, but our achievement here is a big deal and we hope that will help to keep nature safe across all of Orkney.
“Working with the island community has been a privilege, and we’re really grateful for all the support the volunteers there have shown for native wildlife.”
Ian Barker, an island local and biosecurity volunteer, said: “If you’ve ever been to Rousay, you’ll know that finding this stoat raised a lot of challenges.
“We were looking for just one stealthy, fast-moving animal across 4,500 Ha of island – most of which is heather moorland, which is difficult to cross on foot and very easy for stoats to hide in. It has been great to see professionals and volunteers coming together and achieving this common goal.
“I’m really happy that we succeeded in catching this stoat, and that we’ve managed to protect our native wildlife.”
The project is keen to stress that, despite this achievement, the job is not yet done. Over the coming weeks and months, they will need to keep their monitoring networks in place and will continue to carry out high-intensity observation of Rousay. This is to ensure with absolute certainty that no other stoats are present on the island. Then, in line with international best practice, the monitoring will continue for two years after the last stoat was removed before Rousay can declared stoat-free.
It is heartening to everyone involved that the danger posed to native wildlife on Rousay has been quashed. Even by Orkney’s high standards, the island is an important place for nature, particularly for breeding seabirds and birds of moorland, peatland and lochans like curlews, red-throated divers, hen harriers and short-eared owls. It is also one of the islands in Orkney that is home to the Orkney vole – a unique subspecies found nowhere else on earth.
How the stoat reached Rousay is currently unconfirmed, but stoats are excellent swimmers, which is why the ONWP has been monitoring islands within swimming distance of the mainland since the project’s earliest days. The risk of stoats spreading is decreasing as their numbers on the Mainland fall, but Rousay is within a distance a stoat could easily cover over open water.
This means that, while there is currently no further evidence of stoats on the islands outside Mainland and the Linked Isles, every last stoat in Orkney needs to be removed to make sure that native wildlife can live and breed safely across the entire county.
There has been good progress towards achieving a stoat-free Orkney, with recent announcements that more than 9000 stoats have been removed and that there are just a handful remaining in some areas.
The ONWP would like to warmly thank the local community volunteers based on Rousay, whose hard work and diligence was essential to finding and catching the invasive stoat. They will continue to be indispensable to the project’s biosecurity work on the island. Project representatives are also extremely grateful for all the Rousay landowners who have permitted trapping and searching on their land, as well as locals and visitors alike who reported their sightings of the stoat.
Stoats are native to the UK Mainland but not to Orkney, where they pose a very serious threat to Orkney's globally important native wildlife particularly the Orkney vole, hen harrier, short-eared owl and other ground-nesting birds, such as red-throated divers, Arctic terns and curlews. Removing stoats from Orkney is essential to safeguard the future of Orkney’s wildlife and the parts of the economy that rely on it, particularly wildlife tourism, which brings thousands of visitors and millions of pounds into the county each year.
The Orkney Native Wildlife Project – a partnership between RSPB Scotland, NatureScot, and Orkney Islands Council – is undertaking the largest stoat eradication on an inhabited landscape anywhere in the world. It aims to protect Orkney’s native wildlife by completely removing stoats, an invasive non-native predator that was first confirmed in Orkney in 2010.
The project is supported by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, EU Life and the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, and the generosity of people across Scotland and the UK.
To date, more than 9100 stoats have been removed and the risk posed by stoats is being reduced day by day thanks to the huge support from landowners, volunteers and people reporting sightings.
ENDS