A WILDLIFE artist is determined to lift the villainous reputation of both weasels and stoats when he appears on the BBC’s Natural World on Friday.

Robert Fuller, who is also a Gazette & Herald columnist, has nearly 50 cameras, hidden within walls and nests, to monitor the secret lives of the wild stoats and weasels that visit his garden in Thixendale.

Viewers of Weasels: Feisty and Fearless will see his “Stoat City” and “Weasel Town” which he has created to record their behaviour.

Robert said: “I used to see stoats and weasels passing through my garden as part of their territory, but my sightings were always frustratingly brief and by the time I got my camera out they were gone.

“I always try to really understand a species before I begin painting - both stoats and weasels are secretive animals, which presented a real challenge.”

Keen to banish the sneaky stereotype, Robert discovered that both weasels and stoats are successful predators.

One stoat that he is especially interested in following is a young female called Bandita who is about to become a mother to a litter of kits for the very first time.

Robert said: “Witnessing their journey has been fascinating. Both animals are surprisingly arboreal and developed fascinating adaptations to help them hunt, like the long whiskers on the elbows of their front legs.

“Throughout history people have viewed weasels and stoats in a negative light when in actual fact, they are so much more than that.

“They are fearless hunters, but given their size, they must be to survive and actually their tenacity is awesome.”

The main theme of the one-hour programme, which is narrated by Dame Julie Walters, will be shown at 8pm on BBC Two on Friday will be about a Yorkshire stoat rearing her family.