Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
The least weasel has a thin, greatly elongated and extremely flexible body with a small, yet elongated, blunt-muzzled head which is no thicker than the neck. The eyes are small in relation to their head size and are bulging and dark colored. The legs and tail are relatively short, the latter constituting less than half the body length.
The stoat is similar to the least weasel in general proportions, manner of posture, and movement, though the tail is relatively longer, always exceeding a third of the body length, [clarification needed] [24] though it is shorter than that of the long-tailed weasel. The stoat has an elongated neck, the head being set exceptionally far in front ...
In the UK, the term "weasel" usually refers to the smallest species, the least weasel (M. nivalis), [1] the smallest carnivoran species. [ 2 ] Least weasels vary in length from 173 to 217 mm ( 6 + 3 ⁄ 4 to 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in), [ 3 ] females being smaller than the males, and usually have red or brown upper coats and white bellies; some populations ...
Neogale contains four species: the Amazon weasel (Neogale africana), the long and short-tailed weasels (N. frenata and N. lontra), and the American mink (N. vison). Native to the Americas, members of the genus can be found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Argentina and Bolivia.
The short-tailed weasel is the common name in North America for two species once considered a single species: Stoat or Beringian ermine (Mustela erminea), native to Eurasia and the northern portions of North America; American ermine (Mustela richardsonii), found in most of North America aside from the northern areas
Mustelidae, the weasel (mustelid) family, including new- and old-world badgers, ferrets and polecats, fishers, grisons and ratels, martens and sables, minks, river and sea otters, stoats and ermines, tayras and wolverines. Procyonidae, the raccoons and raccoon-like procyonids, including coatimundis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ringtails and ...
The carnassial teeth are short, and the canine teeth long. The claws are sharp and curved, and the tail is long and bushy. Females typically have four teats. Like many other mustelids, the African striped weasel has well-developed scent glands in the perineal region that can spray a noxious fluid when the animal feels threatened. [2]