Summer is over once again, and we are heading out of the year’s stoat breeding and dispersal season. Stoats are still moving around from place to place, but we were sent fewer stoat sightings than in July, and those numbers will go down further as we move further into the winter trapping season.
In August 2026, we removed 172 stoats, responded to 221 stoat sightings, deployed 144 new traps, and carried out 11,437 trap checks.
In most areas of Orkney, the number of stoats removed was slightly higher than in last year’s August. This is because we have more traps in the field than we did a year ago, but also because we carried out over 1,300 more trap checks across the past month than we did in the previous August.
New tricks
The past month has also seen the rollout of a new camera model, supporting our response to the invasive stoat in Rousay.
Like our regular video cameras, the Zeiss trail cameras capture single digital photographs rather than video footage, but like the DOC 100 thermal imaging cameras, they use AI-assisted software to instantly distinguish stoats from other animals or objects.
They can sort through images at a much faster rate than a human watcher, and so they’re freeing up our trappers to spend more time working directly to remove the stoat.
A fond farewell
It’s with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to our summer Residential Volunteers, Jake and Tom, at the start of this month. But it was fantastic to spend the summer trapping season working with them!
For six months, they supported our trapping team in removing stoats from Orkney, carrying out trap checks and setting new ones across Mainland and the Linked Isles. They also mastered our GIS data systems and took part in the wildlife monitoring we carry out twice a year, to keep track of vole and wading bird numbers in the county.
As they move on to new horizons and the next stage of their careers, we thank them for all their hard work, and wish them nothing but the best. We’re also happy to be welcoming two new volunteers for the winter season, one in September and the other in October!
