Weasel

 (C) Mike Prince (shared under a CC BY 2.0 license)

Scientific name: Mustela nivalis

Family: Mustelidae

Appearance: Weasels have a very small elongated body with russet-brown fur everywhere except their white breasts. Unlike stoats, the tail has no black tip and the fur does not turn white in winter. 

Size: Body length: 114-260 mm Tail length: 12-87 mm Weight: 29-250 g

Natural history: Weasels mainly eat small rodents. However, they have been known to take prey as large as a brown hare. Their long thin body lets them squeeze into rodents’ burrow to hunt, but also gives them a very high surface area to body ratio. This means they lose heat rapidly, so they have to eat very often.

Weasels nest in their prey’s former burrows, lined with hay or moss. In the nest, females raise one litter of three to six kittens each year.

Weasels are excellent climbers. In Inuit mythology, weasels are considered wise and courageous.