9
in

Love ItLove It CuteCute WINWIN

A Pictorial Guide to the Weasel Family

The weasel family or mustelids is made up of about 65 species of small to medium carnivores. Most have short, powerful legs, stout claws, and a long, tube-shaped body. All of them have musk glands located near the tail. The musk is often potent and many species have the ability to ‘spray’ this at would be attackers.

The diets consist largely of small animals, birds, or fish and they are important in the wild for helping to keep rodent populations in check. Many have and continue to be hunted or trapped for their soft underfur, though they are now more often raised on farms for their fur.

Many are surprising in regard to their ferociousness and they often aggressively defend themselves against much larger foes.

Mink

This American mink shows that they have little fear of the water. Although they are not truly aquatic animals, they are strong swimmers and seem as happy to eat a fish as they are when they can eat a mouse.

    • That is very true. Minks are quite small; smaller than most house cats, but they can hold their own against much larger animals and don’t show much fear.

Weasel

Pictured is an Alaskan weasel. These cute animals are well equipped with sharp, not-so-cute teeth. The shape of the body makes them experts at following squirrels, voles, lemmings, and other rodents into their burrows.

Marten

This adorable little one is an American marten, sometimes also called a pine marten. They are inquisitive animals and are quite adept at climbing, especially trees. This allows them to get to birds and bird eggs for a quick meal.

Badger

Although the American badger has the typical tube-shaped body, they also tend to be broad, from side to side. This gives them a chubby appearance. The very strong legs are great for burrowing and this animal can dig into even rocky soil amazingly fast.

Badgers are known for having a foul disposition. In fact, every one of them that I've seen in the wild seemed perpetually grumpy and looking for a fight.

Wolverine

It has been said that pound for pound, there is no creature in the world more ferocious than a wolverine. Like their cousins, the badgers, wolverines are cranky. Their bad disposition is coupled with sharp teeth and claws. This animal has been known to face down and attack a bear, many times its own size. The bear will normally be the one that will retreat. They also show no fear of cougars or humans, either.

Weasel in the wintertime

Note how similar this looks to the picture of the ermine above. This isn't an ermine, it is a weasel. However, it shows that ermines aren't the only members of the family that have a white winter pelt. In fact, in the winter it is very difficult to tell the difference between a weasel and an ermine.

If all species of the family were shown, this would be a long pictorial. However, this is fairly representative of the family and it shows both some of the differences and similarities these animals have.

Ferrets

These are black-footed ferrets. This species was nearly wiped out, though not directly. They feed extensively on squirrels called Prairie Dogs and when farmers and ranchers did their best to kill the rodents, the ferrets suffered tremendously. Both ferrets and prairie dogs are making a comeback.

Although in the same family, these animals aren't the same as the pets known as ferrets. The pet is actually a domesticated version of the European polecat.

Ermine

The ermine is also known as the short-tailed weasel or the stoat. Technically, it isn't an ermine unless it is in its white winter phase as the one here shows. In the summer, these animals are mostly brown with lighter colored bellies and a black tip on the tail. The summer to winter coat variation is tremendous.

Otters

Both river otters and sea otters are members of the weasel family and they are primarily aquatic, eating fish, frogs, salamanders, crayfish, snails, and even shellfish. Sea otters also use tools. They float upside down, with a rock on their chests, and will beat a snail or shellfish against it until it breaks.

River otters are one of the most playful wild animals that there is. They often spend many hours a day playing and even the adults get into the act.

As a bit of trivia, no animal in the world has denser fur than the otter. It is even denser than mink.

Report

What do you think?

Written by Rex Trulove

8 Comments