"Whether you call it a weasel, an ermine, or a stoat, you can call the short-tailed weasel an amazing animal. The slinky weasel has sensational moves, a super appetite, and a slick coat that changes color with the seasons!
A Natural Athlete: The short-tailed weasel's slinky body is slim enough to follow mice into their burrows, and its spine is flexible enough to turn around inside a tunnel! Above ground, this speedy weasel can travel through long grass at amazing speeds, take sudden leaps and bounds, and change direction altogether in an instant! At 7 to 13 inches long when full grown, the short tailed weasel is small, but mighty!
The short-tailed weasel can also climb trees like a squirrel, and swim like a champion. It’s not unusual for a short tailed weasel to swim across a large river or lake. With all this activity and a heart rate of 500 beats per minute, weasels burn up a great deal of energy, so they need to eat plenty.
Snack Time: The short-tailed weasel is an important predator that helps keep rodent populations in check. It is so fast, it can easily catch a young rabbit or chipmunk. It is so agile, it can slither into small burrows and nab mice, voles and shrews. By feasting on some pesky rodents, these weasels help protect agricultural crops and reduce the spread of diseases carried by rodents.
Like other weasels, the short-tailed weasel roams a variety of habitats, including open woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, and farmlands. They hunt and patrol their territory between dusk and dawn, and can cover up to 10 miles a night. "
A friend trapped mink across the road from me but I am pretty sure this was his cousin, the weasal. They must be feeding on my famous notill voles! LuAnn saw three "massive" coyotes in the south field on the way to work, they were working that field, too.
Ed Winkle
Few folks ever see a weasel unless they trap or raise chickens. You were lucky!
ReplyDeleteWith all the voles in my fields, I would prefer to see more weasels here and fewer in Washington D.C.
ReplyDeleteEd,
ReplyDeleteNo doubt there are times wildlife makes us pull our hair out. This spring though my 4 yr old daughter got with in 4 ft of a 2-4 day old fawn and she just thought that was great as it layed there in field. I hate the long legged brown rats most of the time but, I must say it was pretty neat for her to see that and then to get home and tell mom about it. Just have to figure out how to share the cow pastures with everyone and get along. It was a great night wish I could post a pic here as I would love to share it.
Phil A.
Phil, if you email the picture I will show it here. That sounds like a special day in your life for sure!
ReplyDeleteI think the tree huggers would love my voles and my weasels even if they like the ones in DC!
That critter is so uncommon here I even misspelled the word!
Ed