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The least weasel (Mustela nivalis), little weasel, common weasel, or simply weasel is the smallest member of the genus Mustela, family Mustelidae and order Carnivora. It is native to Eurasia , North America and North Africa , and has been introduced to New Zealand , Malta , Crete , the Azores , and São Tomé .
Genus Mustela – Linnaeus, 1758 – fifteen species Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population Back-striped weasel. M. strigidorsa Gray, 1855: Parts of southeast Asia: Size: 30–36 cm (12–14 in) long, plus 18–20 cm (7–8 in) tail [83] Habitat: Forest and shrubland [84]
Their range spans Europe, North America, much of Asia and South America, and small areas in North Africa. Terminology The English word "weasel" was originally applied to one species of the genus , the European form of the least weasel ( Mustela nivalis ).
Sthenictis sp. (American Museum of Natural History). Mustelids vary greatly in size and behaviour. The smaller variants of the least weasel can be under 20 cm (8 in) in length, while the giant otter of Amazonian South America can measure up to 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) and sea otters can exceed 45 kg (99 lb) in weight.
Range map Canadian lynx Lynx canadensis: Lynx live in a wide range in Alaska, but due to being mostly nocturnal and instinctively secretive predators they are rarely seen by humans. They share a "boom and bust" symbiotic life cycle with the snowshoe hare, the main animal they prey on. In times of booming hare population lynx are spotted more ...
However, results of a phylogenetic study indicate that mitochondrial DNA supports the Egyptian weasel to be an isolated population of Mustela nivalis, namely the subspecies numidica, which occurs in other parts of the Mediterranean basin, rather than a distinct species, or even a subspecies. [3]
Skulls of a long-tailed weasel (top), a stoat (bottom left) and least weasel (bottom right), as illustrated in Merriam's Synopsis of the Weasels of North America. The long-tailed weasel is the product of a process begun 5–7 million years ago, when northern forests were replaced by open grassland, thus prompting an explosive evolution of small, burrowing rodents.
Mustela sibirica. COVID-19 can infect both the European mink (Mustela lutreola) and the American mink (Neogale vison).Ferrets are used to study COVID-19. [5] Ferrets get some of the same symptoms as humans, [6] but they get less sick than farmed mink. [7]