Our Three Weasels

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Almost everyone is familiar with these little bloodthirsty animals, if only by reputation. Let's have a quick look at these tiny carnivores, and see what some of the facts are.
In the first place, we have three separate weasels in this area of the Northwestern Ontario.
1. The Ermine (Mustela erminea) is common all around the North Pole. In Europe it is called the Stoat. It averages about a foot or so long. In the summer, it is brown with white feet and legs, but in winter it is pure white, except for the tip of its tail, which is black.
2. The Longtail Weasel (Mustela frenata) is a native of the Americas. It is the largest one, being about 20 inches overall. It does have a long tail, which makes up quite a bit of its length. It is much the same colour, both summer and winter, as the first one.
3. The littlest one is the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis). This one is also found all around the pole. Colour changes are similar, with one exception, it does not have the black tip on its tail.
The weasels are all used for fur. All three are classed as ermine in the winter. Good ermine pelts have a fine gloss to them, and for many years have been considered fine enough for royalty. The British coronation robes, for example, reputedly contain some 50,000 ermine pelts. Years ago, folk thought that the fur just changed colour. Now we know that is not so. Weasels moult and get new fur twice a year. This only happens, by the way, in the north. Southern weasels do not change colour at all.
Weasels are carnivores, which means that they live exclusively on meat. They are relentless hunters, mostly on the ground, but they will follow a squirrel through the tree tops, if they fancy squirrel for dinner. They can kill animals many times their own size, up to the size of a rabbit, or even a snowshoe hare. They invariably kill their prey by biting just at the base of the skull, their teeth being adapted for just this purpose.
What about this business of killing for fun, or blood lust? Weasels do sometimes kill several chickens at one time, and I can certainly vouch for that. We all used to believe that they went sort of crazy, and indulged in an orgy of killing. But now, many naturalists have discovered that weasels will store away in underground holes for the winter. They have been found to stash away many, many mice, and even a rabbit or two. With that in mind, it seems quite probable that the weasel, in killing several chickens at once, is simply making provision for the future. He would store them away if he could get them out of the henhouse.
Weasels are all rated as beneficial animals - the farmer's friend - because of their consumption of mice, more than 60% of their diet everywhere. U.S. biologists estimate more than 1300 mice per weasel per year. They also keep down rabbits, rats and other animals pests.
In Manitoba, some poultry farmers like to have weasels freely roaming the farm. They lose far fewer chickens to weasels than they would to rats. Most of us are old-fashioned enough to prefer to have the weasels in the wheat field, rather than in the poultry house.