Lithe, opportunistic and with a predilection for poultry, these elusive, often pocket-sized predators have long raised a stink for farmers and gamekeepers, but not all of them deserve such an otterly bad rap, believes John Lewis-Stempel.
A mustelid by another name would whiff as bad. The mammalian Mustelidae family comes in all sorts of shapes, from bulky badger to slinky stoat, but all are carnivorous, with well-developed scent glands under the tail. Or, in plain…
