Seen a weasel lately?

#MiddleburyCT #Weasel #MLT

The short-tailed weasel is tiny and cute, but it is a formidable predator. It is one of two species found in the northwestern part of Connecticut; the other is the long-tailed weasel. The two look very much alike but are very elusive so you’re lucky to see either one. (Short-tailed Weasel by Steve Hillebrand, US Fish and Wildlife photo)

By JANINE SULLIVAN–WILEY

In days of yore – and in some cases still today – the robes of British royalty would be lined and trimmed with pure white ermine fur with touches of black. So, what exactly is “ermine”?

Ermine is the name for a short-tailed weasel (also called a stoat) in its winter phase, when its coat turns from the soft brown with a white or yellowish underbelly of summer to the pure white of winter when the only remaining color is the black tip of its tail. The short-tailed weasel, Mustela erminea, is one of three hard-to-tell-apart animals, the other two being the long-tailed and the least weasels. The long- and short-tailed varieties (but not the least weasel) are found in Connecticut, especially in the northern and northwestern parts. The long-tailed weasel often but not always molts to the winter coat of white.

The biggest weasels are the long-tailed. The short tailed weasels are in the middle size-wise, and the smallest is the least weasel – not very creative but descriptive names. Fun fact: the fur of the least weasel will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. None of them are very big, ranging from 9 to 14 inches in length. The tail of the long-tailed is as long as the head and body combined – hence its name. They are literally lightweights. Females are smaller than males with short-tailed weasels ranging from 2 to 6 ounces and their slightly bigger cousins from 3 to 9 ounces. For comparison, chipmunks are 8 to 10 inches long (including the tail) and weigh between 2 to 5 ounces.

Weasels have scent glands that emit a pungent scent, but unlike skunks, they cannot spray it defensively – it is used for scent marking. Although weasels are not rare, they can be elusive so there is a good chance that, like me, you have never seen one in the wild. Their typical habitat is classic northwestern Connecticut: woods, brushy areas, farmlands and wetlands. They like rock walls, crevices and old chipmunk burrows for both living and hunting. They are more, but not exclusively, active at night.

They are cute, with sweet little faces, but that cute exterior hides a formidable predator. They can kill animals much bigger than they are. Their carnivorous diet ranges from eggs to amphibians and fish, but their preferred food is small animals like rodents all the way up to rabbits. They hunt under snow, up trees or into burrows of their prey. Having very high metabolisms, they need to eat a lot, but small amounts at a time so they must eat frequently. Weasels cache what they can’t eat right away.

Several years ago, the Middlebury Bee Intelligencer’s editor and publisher witnessed this fierce predator at work in her own yard. She glanced out her back window to see a small animal she had never seen before in the yard. Looking at its long body, short legs, and light brown coloration with a little white on its chest and a light underside, she realized it was a weasel. As she was observing it, a chipmunk came along, and the weasel dashed in and bit the chipmunk on the neck, killing it almost instantly even though both were about the same size. “It was an efficient killing machine,” she said, aptly describing it. It then carried its prey away, either to cache it or eat it in a less open space.

Despite their efficiency as predators, their lives are at risk from other predators, habitat loss, the use of rodenticides (see this author’s October article in this paper), and climate change: a bright white coat becomes high risk for predation rather than camouflage when snow becomes rare or sporadic.

If you have ever seen a weasel in the wild, I would love to hear your story. Contact this writer at jswspotlight@gmail.com. You can visit the Middlebury Land Trust on Facebook or the website at middleburylandtrust.org. Happy hiking!