Editing Stoat (section)

===Territorial and sheltering behaviour===
[[File:StoatDen3 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Stoat nesting in a hollow tree.]]
Stoat territoriality has a generally mustelid spacing pattern, with male territories encompassing smaller female territories, which they defend from other males. The size of the territory and the ranging behaviour of its occupants varies seasonally, depending on the abundance of food and mates. During the breeding season, the ranges of females remain unchanged, while males either become roamers, strayers or transients. Dominant older males have territories 50 times larger than those of younger, socially inferior males. Both sexes [[territorial marking|mark their territories]] with [[urine]], [[feces]] and two types of [[scent mark]]s; anal drags are meant to convey territorial occupancy, and body rubbing is associated with agonistic encounters.<ref name="h460">{{Harvnb|Harris|Yalden|2008|pp=460–461}}</ref>

The stoat does not dig its own burrows, instead using the burrows and nest chambers of the rodents it kills. The skins and underfur of rodent prey are used to line the nest chamber. The nest chamber is sometimes located in seemingly unsuitable places, such as among logs piled against the walls of houses. The stoat also inhabits old and rotting stumps, under tree roots, in heaps of brushwood, haystacks, in bog hummocks, in the cracks of vacant mud buildings, in rock piles, rock clefts, and even in [[magpie]] nests. Males and females typically live apart, but close to each other.<ref name="s1021">{{Harvnb|Heptner|Sludskii|2002|pp=1021–1022}}</ref> Each stoat has several dens dispersed within its range. A single den has several galleries, mainly within {{cvt|30|cm}} of the surface.<ref name="h461">{{Harvnb|Harris|Yalden|2008|p=461}}</ref>