Weasel animal: photo and description, where it lives and what it eats. Common weasel (lat.

Weasel, or common weasel ( Mustela nivalis) - a representative of the Mustelidae family, the genus of Ferrets and Weasels (Mustela). She is the smallest of all predators: the length of the male is 13-26 centimeters, and his weight is 40-250 grams

The weasel or common weasel (Mustela nivalis) is a member of the Mustelidae family, the genus Ferrets and weasels (Mustela). It is the smallest of all predators: the length of the male is 13-26 centimeters, and its weight is 40-250 grams. The female is even smaller.

From Latin, the name of the animal – nivalis – is translated as “snowy”: in winter, the weasel’s fur coat turns snow-white.

Weasel in winter color (molting).

Why was the weasel called weasel?

The bloodthirstiness of this small predator is widely known. Why was he given a name inappropriate for his character?

It turns out that these animals are easily tamed and turn into affectionate and loyal friends. They follow their owner like dogs.

Another version of the origin of the name is known. There is an ancient belief that witches who use women's charms to distract attention often turn into weasels.

Weasel habitat

Weasel is a common animal that can be found throughout Eurasia (it is not found only in Indochina), North Africa(except for the Arctic archipelago and southern deserts) and in the northwestern part of Africa (in the Atlas Mountains). They also brought it to New Zealand.

You can meet weasel in almost all landscape areas. The animals inhabit forests and tundra, steppes and forest-steppes, deserts and semi-deserts, the banks of reservoirs and the outskirts of fields; in the mountains, their distribution areas reach alpine meadows. She also lives in major cities. It is absent only in the polar desert and in mountain belts covered with snow.

Common weasel (Mustela nivalis). Photo by: Yersinia pestis.

The species is divided into several subspecies, differing greatly in size. The smallest weasels live in cold northern regions: northern Europe, Siberia, the Far East and North America. The weasel's competitor, the ermine, lives in the same area. Therefore, the weasel hunts for the smallest mouse-like rodents and gets them in places inaccessible to the ermine. Larger subspecies inhabit hot, arid regions: the Mediterranean, Central and Western Asia. They hunt gerbils, jerboas and small ground squirrels - prey beyond the control of their small relatives. When there is a shortage of food, they can catch birds, young rabbits, amphibians, small fish, lizards, small snakes, insects. They often raid human homes and exterminate poultry- chickens, ducks and others. In such places, weasels are not liked and are often hunted.

The size of the predator's habitat does not exceed a hectare. These natural lands are enough for the weasel to feed on, as it is able to penetrate any hole and get prey from there.

Shelters for the animal are the homes of mice and moles, piles of brushwood and stones, stacks, wood buildings, and tree hollows.

Enemies of weasels

Like any animal, weasels also have enemies; they often become prey birds of prey(owls and even a great bittern), their brothers in the family - stoats, and also more large predators– Arctic foxes, martens, sables, predators of the cat family.

A weasel fell prey to a great bittern (Botaurus stellaris). Photo by: Fausto Deseri.

Residents of Ancient Rome and early medieval Europe used weasels as a pet to hunt mice. But when Old light inhabited by large gray rats, which are difficult for small animals to cope with, weasels have been replaced by ferrets and cats.

Feeding weasels with milk from a syringe. Photo by: Armando Caldas.

If you decide to get a pet, please note that babies are easier to tame, they will require careful care and you will have to tinker with feeding them. Therefore, in practice, adult animals are more often caught and gradually tamed. But in the process of taming, your hands will be bitten more than once. If you are willing to spend a lot of time adapting with the animal, then it will become a loyal and reliable friend.

Raising weasels at home from a very early age. Photo by: Armando Caldas.

You will have to feed your pet fresh and high-quality meat and eggs. The animal must always have clean water.

The weasel will choose its own place to rest. She can take the place of another pet. In addition, she easily takes food from cats and dogs.

Common weasel (Mustela nivalis). Photo credit: Gary Mann.

Your weasel can cause a lot of problems if your neighbors have poultry. She will exterminate all these birds, turning your neighbor into fierce enemy. But if the bird lives with you, the weasel will not touch it, since it does not hunt where it lives.

Buy weasel

If you still haven’t changed your mind about having a weasel in your home, then you will be faced with the question: “Where to buy a weasel?” Unfortunately, weasels are very rarely on sale. You will have to catch the animal yourself or find the right person.

Chub Natalya, Kirill Usanov

It’s hard to imagine, but the weasel was once considered a pet – the Romans kept it in the hope of getting rid of small rodents. True, over time, ferrets and cats replaced the predator from the hearts and homes of the ancient Roman nobility.

Description of weasel

The common weasel (Mustela nivalis) is a member of the genus Weasels and ferrets in the mustelidae family and is the smallest land predator. Males grow up to 16–26 cm with a weight of 50–250 g, females weigh from 30 to 110 g with a height of 11.5–21 cm.

Appearance

Most of all, the weasel resembles the ermine and the solongoi, but differs from them in its smallness and specific details. Naturalists note its serpentine appearance, which is created thanks to a thin elongated body on short legs and reptile movements (when the weasel climbs among stones or dead wood). The resemblance to a snake is also emphasized by the long powerful neck (slightly thinner than the body), crowned with a narrow head with a small muzzle and rounded, widely set ears, barely protruding upward.

The weasel has dark, shiny eyes (as if slightly bulging) and a dull, barely forked nose. The tail is short (within 1.2–8.7 cm), matching color scheme with a colored back (unlike the ermine, which has a black tip). There's a secret hiding under the tail chemical weapon Weasels are glands that generate a liquid with an irritating odor.

Important! The color of the coat differs in winter and summer. When it gets cold, the weasel turns completely white in the north and partially in the south. The fur is equally thick in winter and summer, but winter hair is longer and thicker than summer hair.

In summer, the animal displays a bicolor coloration with white underparts ( internal sides limbs and partly feet) and a dark top (with variations in brown shades, depending on the area). The color transition from top to bottom is sharp.

Lifestyle and behavior

The weasel lives and feeds in a relatively small area of ​​0.5–1 hectares. B O She simply doesn’t need a larger area, since the predator freely crawls into any, even the smallest, holes for prey. The weasel itself does not dig holes - its tiny paws and sharp claws are not suitable for such work. The animal uses the first vole or mole hole it encounters as temporary bunkers, hiding from danger.

In its plot, the weasel also sets up several permanent shelters, which (except for mouse holes) become:

• voids in rocky areas;
• stacks;
• brushwood;
• firewood stacks;
• the buildings;
• low-lying hollows.

The den is usually lined with dry leaves and grass, as well as moss. Spends most of its life on the ground, avoiding open places when walking around its personal area and preferring to stay close to bushes and other natural shelters.

The weasel is distinguished by its quick reaction and swift movements, including when pursuing a victim. The predator climbs trees well and swims well, but only for short distances. It walks up to 2 km a day, and in winter, when a lot of snow falls, it prowls in its voids.

This is interesting! The footprint in the snow is easily recognizable: when a weasel jumps, it places its paws in pairs (“doubles”), while a galloping ermine leaves prints of three paws (“triplet”).

The characteristic gait of the weasel is a jumping movement, typical of all small mustelids.. The length of a standard jump is approximately 20–25 cm, when evading enemies it is up to 40–50 cm. The weasel hunts tirelessly both day and night, especially where there is no external threat to it. In the heat of the excitement of the hunt, she sometimes destroys poultry by climbing into chicken coops, which, however, is often forgiven for the total extermination of mice.

How long do weasels live?

The weasel's vitality reserve is designed for 5 years. That's how long she could live in wildlife, if not for diseases, poachers, large predators and other objective reasons that lead animals to early death. In reality, the average lifespan of a weasel is much less than the maximum and is 10–12 months.

Range, habitats

The weasel has inhabited all the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Animals can be found in such geographical regions as:

• Eurasia, excluding Indochina;
• North America (except for the southern deserts and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago);
• northwest Africa (Atlas Mountains).

Zoologists talk about pronounced intraspecific variability in weasels. For example, the smallest and darkest animals with short tails live in forests Far East and Siberia, northern Europe and North America. Larger (3-4 times) and lightly colored weasels with long tails inhabit the arid regions of lowland Asia (Central/Anterior), as well as the Mediterranean (northern Africa, southern Europe and southwestern Asia).

Important! Southern animals do not have such a food competitor as ermine, and they hunt fairly large rodents (gophers, jerboas and gerbils), which northern weasels could not cope with.

In Russia, the weasel, due to its comparative unpretentiousness, is widespread and has adapted to most landscape and geographical zones. The predator avoids only snowy highlands and polar deserts, where mustelids are not found in principle.

In other places where small rodents live (steppe/forest-steppe, forests of all types, tundra, deserts and mountains to alpine meadows), weasels can also be found. The animal is not afraid of humans: the weasel has been seen in the park areas of megacities, including in the capital's squares/parks.

Weasel diet

The weasel is considered one of the most highly specialized predators due to its affinity for small rodents. The animal loves to hunt in the dark (in the evening and at night), but will not miss the opportunity to dine during the day. Animals do not know fatigue, searching stacks and haystacks, checking windbreaks and uprooted rhizomes, diving into the snow in winter.

Having stumbled upon a colony of gerbils or gerbils, the weasel disappears for a long time in the underground tunnels of its victims, searching every hole. Traveling through burrows, the predator periodically catches and devours shrews, which are abhorred by other forest predators. By the way, the latter also provide the weasel with food, without knowing it: she willingly feasts on their scraps.

The standard weasel diet consists of such animals as:

• mice, including field mice - middle zone;
• hamsters – steppe zone;
• gerbils – desert zone;
• chicks and eggs (weasels suck the contents out of them, making several holes);
• small fish and amphibians (only during hungry periods).

Residents of the Primorsky Territory observe how weasels sometimes explore the sea coast in search of food scraps brought by the surf.

This is interesting! It has been established that the weasel kills the victim by biting through its skull in the back of the head, and then begins to eat the most high-calorie parts of the carcass. U field mouse This is a mesentery with significant fat accumulations.

It is for this reason that the weasel feasts first internal organs mouse-like rodents and only then tries other fragments of the carcass.

The predator does not always eat in the hole where it finds prey. Sometimes she drags her several hundred meters to her home to have lunch in comfort. Even the weight of the burden, often equal to half its own weight, does not stop the caress.

When there is an abundance of food, the weasel stores it, turning one of its stationary shelters into a storehouse. In such a food warehouse she stores from 1 to 30 killed voles.

Weasel (lat. Mustela nivalis) belongs to the mustelidae family, there are 7 subspecies common weasel(Siberian, northern, southern, Crimean, Lesser and Greater Caucasus, Turkestan). Surprisingly, this small animal, barely reaching 20 centimeters, is quite dangerous predator. Average weight males - 80-100 grams, females - 50-60 grams. Representatives of this species have an elongated thin body, short legs with sharp claws.

The neck of the common weasel is long and powerful, the head is small, with a blunt muzzle and small ears. The weasel's nose seems to be slightly bifurcated, the eyes are dark, large, the teeth are large and sharp. The tail appears very short in relation to the length of the body. The color of the animal is similar to an ermine, only there is no blackness at the tip of the tail. The hair is short, close-fitting, and near the tail of the weasel there are musk glands that secrete a specifically smelling liquid - a kind of protection from larger opponents. After autumn molt The weasel is completely white; in the spring it takes on a different color: the back becomes brownish-brown, and there may be dark spots on the face.

How do weasels live in nature?

This small, nimble animal has many enemies: foxes, wolves, badgers, golden eagles, eagle owls and others. However, a small predator does not give up without a fight and can sometimes defeat even a large opponent. IN natural conditions they eat the eggs of birds, mouse-like rodents (hamsters, gerbils), larks and others small birds, shrews, small lizards, snakes, insects and even fish. On average, a weasel consumes 30-40 grams of food. It hunts most often at night and easily climbs even into narrow holes.

The weasel's habitat is the outskirts of fields, the banks of reservoirs, and forests; weasels prefer to settle close to human settlements. A weasel's nest is most often a hole dug by someone or a low-lying hollow. Animals often set up several dwellings on their territory, in hibernation they don't fall in.

The easiest way to tame a weasel is in at a young age: True, you will have to feed your pet using a syringe or pipette. Adult animals are more difficult to domesticate; they bite, break out and have difficulty adapting to life in captivity. A tamed weasel can become a true friend if the pet is kept in a cage (it is equipped with a house, driftwood, toys, a feeder, a drinking bowl and a litter tray). You cannot keep the animal in a cage all the time - it becomes aggressive, let it out for a walk around the apartment, but first close all the windows and doors - the nimble weasel can even slip out into a crack and run away.

Gets along well with other animals, but can steal food. If you have a bird in your house, you can train your weasel not to hunt it.

The weasel can be bathed periodically in the bath; during shedding, the animal should be combed with a damp brush. They feed the weasel meat, eggs, insects, and so on. There must be a drinking bowl with clean water. In captivity, weasels live 8-10 years, but there are long-livers (a male weasel listed in the Guinness Book of Records died at the age of 60).

• IN Ancient Rome these animals were kept in houses - they were excellent at hunting rodents, but gradually they were replaced by cats;
• Weasel - valuable fur-bearing animal, but their species was close to extinction and hunting was limited;
• Translated from Latin, "nivalis" means " whiter than snow»;
• Weasels are very thrifty pets; sometimes up to 40 mice can be found in its hole “in case of hunger strike”;
• In natural conditions, weasels have their own hunting territory, most often it is small - up to 1 km.

Weasel is the tiniest animal of the mustelidae family. Look at the photo, she has a beautiful flexible strong body with smooth contours and short small legs. The length of the body without a tail is no more than 24 centimeters, and an adult weasel weighs no more than 100 grams.

Is it true that the weasel animal can fit into a ring?

It is true that the head of a female weasel is so small that the animal can crawl into a mouse hole, even if the entrance to the hole is no more than one and a half centimeters! What does it look like animal, weasel look at the photo.

Here in the photo is a weasel animal that is already six months old, and it easily fits on the palm of a teenager’s hand.

The weasel animal has beautiful short thick fur, and the color cover varies depending on different time of the year. The weasel's summer outfit is a brown back and remnants of white fur on the abdomen, and in winter, after molting, she has a white fur coat.

Weasel animal, what does it eat?

Weasel is a small but bloodthirsty animal - a predator. She usually hunts in the dark, so it is very difficult to see her. The main prey of the animal are weasels, lizards and frogs. The weasel easily climbs into the narrowest crevices, hollows, etc. This animal also knows how to climb trees to dine on bird eggs and chicks.

Very often the weasel visits homestead farms and dachas. This animal is simply the scourge of poultry and rabbit breeders. Having settled next to the farmstead, she will constantly bring pet rabbits to her children and can even kill an adult rabbit.

The action of petting an animal to destroy chickens.

The weasel animal is terrible because it absolutely knows no limits and kills in reserve, much more than is necessary to feed the entire family. Cases have been recorded where a weasel, once in a chicken coop, strangled all the birds in it. Here is an example photo of an animal Weasel killed an adult rabbit.

The weasel also loves to steal eggs, rolling them into his hole.

There is a belief that animal weasel tickles a cow and so she stops milking. This is almost true, a weasel drinks milk from a cow’s udder, and the cow’s milk disappears out of fear. But the belief that the weasel animal harms root crops is not true, the weasel is not interested in root crops, it is a predator and simply uses underground passages dug by the mole in order to get closer to its prey.

Weasels live in burrows, although it can also settle in natural crevices, under stones, in the ruins of buildings and even under woodpiles in the courtyard. It rarely builds a hole for itself, preferring to drive out of the hole, such as a field mouse, a rat, and even settles in mole holes.

The weasel animal is a caring mother; she alone feeds and raises up to seven babies for three whole months. True, for the first three weeks weasel puppies eat only milk, but they grow quickly and already hunt on their own at four months. The lifestyle of this one is solitary. Animal weasel“marks the territory in which to hunt and live, and the size of this territory can reach 10 hectares. The weasel marks its possessions with a pungent smell, like the smell of a skunk, well-known from cartoons.

How to get rid of a weasel animal

It is very difficult to rid a yard of weasels or to catch them; the animal is very careful and intelligent, and hunts only at night. And is it worth catching? It’s impossible to domesticate an adult weasel, at home Only puppies up to 1-2 months old take root, no older. If the weasel bothers your pets, you can try to catch it with a trap set near a hole or hole through which it enters, for example, into a chicken coop. A weasel ends up in a trap only through negligence, fleeing from a person or dog. Doesn't take poisoned food.

Very interesting way getting rid of affection I observed in the village, a weasel got into the chicken coop through a twig that jumped out of the board. The owner stuffed three fishing hooks right inside the hole in the board; the hooks did not interfere with the animal getting into the chicken coop, but, escaping from the chicken coop, the weasel was strung on the hooks like .

Look photo of animal weasel– 12 pcs

This is what it looks like animal weasel photo

Weasel is the smallest representative of the order of carnivores. The weasel is very reminiscent of an ermine, but is distinguished by its small size and shorter, and most importantly, monochromatic tail - it does not have a black tassel on its tail. In summer fur, the top of the weasel is brownish-brown and the bottom is pure white.

• Where does the weasel live?

The weasel is found in Europe, Northern Asia and North America. Lives in fields and forests, in mountainous and lowland areas, without avoiding populated areas. It lives under stones, in hollows, in ruins, in burrows, barns, etc. Weasels often form colonies. The nest is lined with dry grass, moss, leaves of chestnuts and ferns.

• How long does a weasel live?

Weasel lives, according to various sources, 17, 20, 30 years; strong males sometimes live up to 60 years (as a rule, animals of the same size as weasels live no more than 8 years).

• What does a weasel eat?

The weasel is very dexterous and agile, runs fast, climbs and swims well, is distinguished by great courage and aggressiveness and is a dangerous enemy for all small animals; Its food consists of house mice, field and forest mice, rats, moles, young rabbits, hamsters, chickens, pigeons, as well as lizards, copperheads, snakes, even vipers, frogs, and insects. In places where it is not pursued, the weasel hunts both day and night. By exterminating mice, it brings great benefit, which, in any case, outweighs the harm it sometimes brings to chicken coops. Weasels sometimes successfully fight off even relatively large birds of prey (for example, kites).

Meeting with a weasel

By mid-April bright Sun rays melted the remaining snow in the forest, and flooding began in the floodplain of the Oka River. In areas that were not flooded with water, fresh young greenery was already making its way through last year’s withered grass. Here and there one could see golden-green spots of one of the primroses - the spring clear.

Its shiny round leaves are shaped like hooves, so it is not surprising that the popular name of this flower is hooves. Chistyak loves damp, damp places - it grows along the banks of rivers, streams, near meadow lakes and swamps, in damp places of deciduous forests. The bright yellow flowers are closely related to buttercups, and like them, due to their toxicity, they are not eaten by animals.

The entire shore of one of the lakes where I went was dotted with mouse holes. Very soon it will be hidden by a motley carpet of meadow grasses, but for now there is still little grass, and the burrows are clearly visible. Stopping, I began to listen to see if any bird would squeak in the coastal bushes. After all, on the edge of the spill you can already see bluethroats and yellow wagtails looking for food. And suddenly a loud, piercing, grinding screech was heard very close by, as if someone had accidentally been stepped on! Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small long body from the side, darting into one of the holes. It was a caress. Apparently, she never expected to see a man next to her and squealed in fear.

Affections are quite common among us, however, due to small size It’s not often possible to see them. The length of this animal is only from 11 to 26 cm, the tail is from 2 to 8 cm. And even if you accidentally encounter a weasel, you don’t have time to really look at it - it’s so fast. It flashed - and she was gone. However, many animals respond primarily to movement. Therefore, if you don’t move, you can sometimes watch some animal. This is what happened with this weasel. I didn’t move, and the weasel appeared again from the hole, only from a completely different one. After sticking her head out for 2-3 seconds, she disappeared. For the next half hour, all the weasel did was appear from one hole, then from another, then a couple of meters from me, or even 20-30. All the holes were connected to each other by underground passages, so it was impossible to determine in advance where her muzzle would appear next time. Sometimes the weasel even stood up on its hind legs and vigilantly looked around the surroundings.

Some of the weasel's holes were flooded by the beginning of the flood, and then the weasel jumped out of there wet. Of course, she was not playing hide and seek with me at all, as it might have seemed from the outside; the weasel was hunting. On the surface she looked out for small birds, and in underground passages she looked for mice and shrews. The miniature size of this predator allows it to overtake its victims right in their own holes! In addition to mice and birds, weasels can hunt frogs and insects. In winter, weasels chase rodents under the snow. At this time of year the animal wears a snow-white fur coat, and in the summer its color is two-tone - the top and paws are colored Brown color, and the bottom is white. During breeding, the female weasel builds a ball-shaped nest out of grass. There are from 4 to 8 cubs in the litter.

Villagers don't like affection. Firstly, like a ferret, she carries chickens. And secondly, it “tickles” cows that are huge compared to her, making them “scared and sweating.” That's what it is!

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The weasel was caught next to a mouse nest in potato tops. Even sitting in the bank, she did not lose her hunting instinct. Of course she was released back.