Long tailed weasel12/4/2023 Long-tailed weasels have a black tip to their tail, even in their all white winter phase. They are cinnamon brown in color with white under parts that have a yellow tinge. Their fur is composed of short, soft underfur covered by shiny guard hair. Long-tailed weasels have a small, narrow head with long whiskers, and short legs. These weasels have long, bushy tails that make up about 50% of their total body length. On average, males are larger than females. Their long bodies and flexible backs allow them to enter the burrows of rodents and other animals that are smaller than them. Long-tailed weasels have a long slender body and head. In some locations they are endangered, and in others, considered threatened or species of concern.Ĭlick here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account Foxes, raptors, Coyotes, domestic dogs and cats, and rattlesnakes all prey on Long-tailed Weasels, and although they can live in a variety of habitats, population densities are low. In 12 weeks they reach full adult body weight and begin hunting for food, pursuing mates, and establishing territories. Litters usually comprise 4-5 pups, born in a den. Both males and females maintain territories, marking them with chemical secretions from anal glands. They are solitary except for the July-August breeding season. In the wild they may store food in a burrow or near a kill site. In captivity, adults can consume an amount equal to one-third their own body weight in 24 hours. At the children’s section of the Mattapoisett Library, the weasel is a prominent participant in songs that are sung to musical instruments, such as the piano.Īmong traditional country classics of children’s books are “Home on the Range,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” and “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” To conclude my metaphor of comparison, the most memorable youthful tune titled “Pop Goes the Weasel” is a much more colorful finish to end my animation of this long-tailed wildlife image.Long-tailed Weasels are voracious predators, foraging day and night for small vertebrates, and scavenging for carrion when necessary. However, the weasel, despite playing a key role in a dangerous habitat of survival of the fittest, has a much more humorous character identity when portrayed in ancient stories and fables of the creation of the animal world. The weasel is just one member of a much larger family of a similar but larger group of ornery predators that includes the nasty-minded mink, the mean-tempered fisher, and the raging, destructive wolverine. They are hunted by bobcats, foxes, hawks, and owls. Although they themselves are highly effective predators, they are not anywhere near the top of the food chain. Weasels and their families are found wherever their prey is abundant, in young brushy forests, shrub country, edges of wetlands, and in rock and wood piles. The female weasel, with three kits shown, is totally responsible for their upbringing, including a delayed implantation after breeding in early spring by stopping development of the eggs in her reproductive system for several months so they can be born into the warm season of summer to facilitate their growth and development. They generally hunt alone to also catch mice, voles, frogs, rabbits, and birds.īecause they need to accumulate large amounts of fat to feed their extensive activity of energy, they are best known for raiding hen houses to total destruction, often killing everything in sight. They have a reputation as bold, aggressive predators able to chase rodents down rat holes and flush them out to be caught on the other side. ![]() ![]() The long-tailed weasel species is classified as the least weasel because it is the smallest member of other elongated fury animals, about the size of a domestic ferret, and, turning from brown to white in winter, it becomes an ermine to decorate the collars of ladies’ coats.Īs illustrated in my drawing, they have elongated tubular bodies with flattened ears and heads.
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