Stoats live across much of the Northern Hemisphere and in a few places in the Southern Hemisphere where humans introduced them.

Main places stoats live

  • Continents: Large parts of North America, Europe, and Asia, in what’s called a “circumboreal” range (around the northern parts of the globe).
  • Europe: Found from northern Europe down to about central Portugal, on many islands but not places like Iceland, Svalbard, Mediterranean islands, or some small North Atlantic islands.
  • North America: Found from Alaska and western Yukon across most of Arctic Canada and into Greenland; farther south in North America, a closely related species replaces them.
  • Asia: Occur across much of northern Asia, including mountainous regions of Japan such as the northern and central Japanese Alps and Hokkaido, often in cooler, higher areas.
  • Britain & Ireland: Present throughout most of Britain and Ireland, including many offshore islands, but absent from some small islands like the Isles of Scilly and a few Scottish and Channel Islands.
  • New Zealand (introduced): Brought in the 1800s and now live from beaches to high alpine areas, in forests, scrub, dunes, tussock, and farmland, and even near towns and farms.

What habitats do stoats prefer?

Stoats are very adaptable and will live almost anywhere with enough food and cover.

  • Typical habitats:
    • Riparian woodlands (near rivers and streams), shrubby fencerows, marshes, alpine meadows, and open areas close to forests or shrubs.
* Grasslands, orchards, heathland and moorland, coastal habitats, and farmland edges.
  • Cover and hunting areas:
    • They like places with ground cover where they can stay hidden from predators, such as hedgerows, ditches, stone walls, meadows, and marshes.
* In New Zealand, they use everything from forest to farm pasture and are happy close to human settlements.

Where do stoats actually sleep and hide?

Stoats don’t usually dig their own homes; they take over sheltered spots from other animals.

  • They use:
    • Old rabbit burrows, holes under tree roots, hollow logs, rotting stumps, rock piles, and rock crevices.
* Haystacks, brushwood heaps, cracks in old mud buildings, and sometimes even old bird nests such as magpie nests.
  • Each stoat may have several dens scattered around its territory, often close to the surface (around 30 cm deep).

Simple way to remember it

If you imagine a cool or temperate countryside—with fields, hedges, woods, riverbanks, and maybe some farms—there’s a good chance that’s the kind of place stoats live, as long as there is plenty of prey like rabbits, rodents, and birds.

In short, when you think “where do stoats live,” think northern parts of the world plus New Zealand, in almost any wild or semi-wild habitat with food and hiding places.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.