What little beastie is digging in my garden?

[Blu]

I round hole about the diameter of a cardboard tube from a kitchen roll, sloping steeply downwards..it has been diging it for a few days and has shifted out quite a bit of earth.
Could it be a rat?
A neighbourhood cat has been peering down the hole a lot.

[Blu]

Bump!

[SoupDragon]

Sounds about rat sized to me. I have holes like this in my compost bin. I put rat bait in it at the weekend but am now to scared to go back and look.

[Manictigger]

I am pmsl about the cat peering down the hole. Is he assessing whether it's too big for him to have a go at?

[Manictigger]

Sorry, I guess you really wanted advice. I'd call the local council and get them to come and have a look if you're worried.

[Blu]

I must say it looks suspiciously rat-like. Do rats dig holes in the middle of an open patch of earth? I would have thought they would prefer a secluded hidey hole?

[SoupDragon]

I must say I thought it unlikely they'd dig in th middle of a lawn but then again, I'd think that of any animal. Is it a definite tunnel?

[NoodleStroodle]

More like a squirrel surely?
I am not sure that rats actively dig holes - don;t they just fine ones in your house to live in?

[SoupDragon]

Squrrels wouldn't dig a sloping tunnel though would they? They just dig holes IYSWIM. Rats definitely tunnel into compost heaps.

[NoodleStroodle]

Rabbit?

[Blu]

I have googled rats - and they do dig burrows, apparantly.
I don't think it is a big enough hole for a rabbit.
I'm now worried that if I put down poison, a rat might somehow carry it into the rabbit's shed.
I wish the peering cat looked a bit more competent!

[SoupDragon]

I'm guessing Blu's critter isn't a racoon

[SoupDragon]

Fill the hole in and see if it reappears.

[Manictigger]

My mum and dad had a rat dig a hole in a bank sloping down from their back path (they were worried that eventually the concrete path would collapse) It was right next to the bench where they sit everyday so no I don't think rats necess care where they burrow. The ratman's theory was that the rat positioned it because it was handy for the bird table! I think the man that my mum and dad saw placed the poison in the hole so provided you keep the rabbit shed reasonably secure you should be ok (rats eat the poison and then tend to go back to their nests to die I think)

My mum and dad were particularly peed off because the rat appeared just weeks after their elderly cat died.

Cheeky bloody bastard!

[Blu]

Racoons - awful things! I was once treated to the highly entertaining sight of a naked man chasing a racoon rund an apartment i was staying in in Canada, trying to chase it out of the window, and brandishing a range of kitchen incidents.

I will fill in the hole and get some poison.