Jake Buehler is a writer.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Jurgen Christine Sohns/Imagebroker/Shutterstock (4401886a) European Polecat (Mustela putorius), adult, alert, Surrey, England, United Kingdom VARIOUS

There are Polecats in England.

There is a picture of Christine Sohns in the stock market.

In Britain, many wild polecats are ferrets. The weasel-like mammals have spread from a small population in Wales to a large one.

The ancestors of ferrets are believed to be the European polecats. Polecats were once widespread in Britain, but by 1900 they were only found in a small part of the Welsh forest.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 has contributed to the recovery of the polecat. Polecat populations have expanded eastward through England, which is home to ferret populations. According to Graham Etherington at the Earlham Institute, researchers hadn't determined the extent of interbreeding.