Weasel

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Weasel

Weasels are mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae

Mustelidae

Mustelidae or Mustelids , commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivora mammals. The Mustelidae is a diverse family and the largest in the order Carnivora, at least partly because it has in the past been a catch-all category for many early or poorly differentiated taxa....
family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
.

Originally, the name "weasel" was applied to one species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of the genus, the Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an form of the Least Weasel

Least Weasel

The Least Weasel is the smallest member of the genus Mustela, and indeed in the entire Order Carnivora....
(Mustela nivalis). Early literary references to weasels, for example their common appearances in fables, refer to this species rather than to the genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
as a whole, reflecting what is still the common usage in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. In technical discourse, however, as in American usage, the term "weasel" can refer to any member of the genus, or to the genus as a whole.

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Encyclopedia

Weasels are mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae

Mustelidae

Family (biology)

Species

Europe

Least Weasel

Genus

United Kingdom

Stoat

The stoat is a small mammal of the family Mustelidae. In North America it is known as the ermine or short-tailed weasel; elsewhere, "ermine" refers to the animal only when it has white fur, which it moults to in winter in snowy parts of its range....
or ermine, the two species of mink

Mink

There are two living species of mink: the American Mink and the European Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but is much larger....
, and the polecats or ferret

Ferret

The ferret is a Domestication mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually Sexual dimorphism predators with males being substantially larger than females....
s.

Weasels vary in length from fifteen to thirty-five centimeters (six to fourteen inches), and usually have a light brown upper coat, white belly and black fur at the tip of the tail; in many species, populations living at high latitudes moult

Moult

In biology, moulting signifies the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body , either at specific times of year, or at specific points in its life-cycle....
to a white coat with black fur at the tip of the tail in winter. They have long slender bodies, which enable them to follow their prey into burrows. Their tails are typically almost as long as the rest of their bodies. As is typical of small carnivores, weasels have a reputation for cleverness and guile. They also have tails that can be anywhere from 22-33 cm long and they use these to defend the food they get and to claim territory from other weasels. The average weasel weighs about 198 grams (7 ounces).

Weasels feed on small mammals, and in former times were considered vermin

Vermin

Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded as Pest or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of disease....
since some species took poultry

Poultry

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
from farms, or rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genus in the family taxonomy as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit ....
s from commercial warrens. Certain species of weasel and ferret

Ferret

Weasel war dance

The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited ferrets and weasels. The war dance usually follows play or the successful capture of a toy or a stolen object....
, after fighting other creatures, or acquiring food from competing creatures. In folklore at least, this dance is particularly associated with the stoat

Stoat

Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and neighbouring islands

Wallace Line

The Wallace Line is a boundary that separates the Ecozone of Asia and Wallacea . West of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic species; to the east, a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin are present....
.

Species

The following information is according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System

Integrated Taxonomic Information System

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species....
, and IUCN 2006 for the extinct Mustela macrodon.

Mustela africana	Desmarest, 1800	Tropical weasel	South America South America South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
Mustela altaica	Pallas, 1811	Mountain weasel	Europe Europe Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast.... & Northern Asia Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.... Southern Asia
Mustela erminea	Linnaeus, 1758	Stoat Ermine Short-tailed weasel	Europe & Northern Asia North America Southern Asia (non-native) New Zealand (non-native)
Mustela eversmannii	Lesson, 1827	Steppe polecat	Europe & Northern Asia Southern Asia
Mustela felipei	Izor and de la Torre, 1978	Colombian weasel	South America
Mustela frenata	Lichtenstein, 1831	Long-tailed weasel	Middle America North America South America South America South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
Mustela itatsi	Temminck, 1844	Japanese weasel	Japan Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.... & Sakhalin Is. (Russia Russia Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia.... )
Mustela kathiah	Hodgson, 1835	Yellow-bellied weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela lutreola	(Linnaeus, 1761)	European mink	Europe & Northern Asia
Mustela lutreolina	Robinson and Thomas, 1917	Indonesian mountain weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela nigripes	(Audubon and Bachman, 1851)	Black-footed ferret	North America
Mustela nivalis	Linnaeus, 1766	Least weasel	Europe & Northern Asia (non-native) North America Southern Asia (non-native) New Zealand (non-native)
Mustela nudipes	Desmarest, 1822	Malayan weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela putorius	Linnaeus, 1758	European Polecat	Europe & Northern Asia New Zealand (ssp. furo) (non-native)
Mustela sibirica	Pallas, 1773	Siberian weasel	Europe & Northern Asia Southern Asia
Mustela strigidorsa	Gray, 1855	Back-striped weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela subpalmata	Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1833	Egyptian weasel	Egypt Egypt Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....

¹ Europe & Northern Asia division excludes China.