Part 25

Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), quote a neighbor in the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba, as recording that on October 29, 1917, "A weasel last night made its way into our fowl-house, the door being inadvertently left open. The weasel killed eleven fowl, some of which were dragged into the yard. All the largest fowls were selected, the pullets remaining untouched though they were in the majority. Next night the weasel dug a hole beneath the building and killed a hen and two cocks, returning for another during the day, making a total of fourteen in all." Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) remark that the weasel proved to be a large one, probably an old male. The same authors (_op. cit._:147) record that at their farm at Treesbank, Manitoba, on January 31, 1925, "A Long-tailed Weasel killed three hens last night, and rather severely bit a cock about the neck. This, or another weasel, had been around the farm-yard for sometime (The specimen was a large male). . . .

"In the fall of 1924, Mr. A. Cooper, a prominent poultryman of Treesbank, observed a large weasel carrying a freshly killed rat which it stored below ground and then returned towards the poultry-house, causing no little apprehension to the owner. Within a short time, however, the weasel reappeared with another rat which it hid as before. In this way several rodents were accounted for during the afternoon, and Mr. Cooper assures us that the weasel 'kept up the good work for same days'.

"Being a farmer of many years' standing, Mr. Cooper has naturally lost some poultry through the agency of weasels, but while he remarks that 'there are good as well as bad actors among weasels', he has the practical good sense to recognize the value of an efficient ratter even though it be a weasel.

"Our sister, Maida Criddle, writes under date of March 4, 1925:

"'There is another weasel (_longicauda_) in the fowl-house, a well-behaved one this time. It came and took a piece of meat out of my hand quite nicely, which it carried down a hole and then came and sniffed all over my mitt to see if there was any more. I thought it had been killed when I visited the farm buildings next day as there was a strong smell of musk on the cat and in the fowl house, but the weasel was there as cheeky as ever. It got hold of my skirt twice and tried to pull me down its hole. I think it wanted the cloth for a bed, as it was taking straw and other material down the burrow. The poultry were very frightened at first, but they are getting used to the weasel's presence now'."

In commenting on the economic role of the long-tailed weasel in Manitoba, Criddle and Criddle (1925:145) write as follows: "Supply and demand are prominent factors in governing our weasels' food habits. The two smaller species, as we have already pointed out are so dependent upon mice for a living that they increase or diminish with the fluctuation of these creatures. The Long-tailed Weasel, however, is not so easily checked by the temporary disappearance of any particular kind of game. If mice are scarce it devotes greater attention to gophers or bush rabbits and if these are not in sufficient numbers to satisfy its appetite, the animal raids a poultry house as a last resource. In nine years out of ten, this weasel will find sufficient food about the fields and woods, but on the tenth it may be obliged to temporarily turn to domestic animals. It is at such times that the weasel is seen and its deeds recorded. A thousand mice may have been killed in the meantime, but the destruction of half a dozen hens is alone used as evidence of the weasel's economic standing.

"In the last twenty years we have permitted weasels to frequent the farm buildings at will and the poultry house has been no exception. In that time rats and mice suffered severely from the weasels, while the total number of poultry taken were six. Many times that number, however, have been killed by rats.

"When we review our experiences of the past, we are astonished to find what few poultry have been killed by weasels. Our own losses in forty-two years have not exceeded fifteen birds and even these were usually eatable. There have been reports of losses from time to time from neighbors, but on looking into details we find that there are very few farmers who have experienced more than three separate occasions of weasel depredation and the total loss per farmer in the last thirty years does not, we are sure, exceed ten birds. This is surely a remarkably small payment to weasels in general for the great good done by them in killing rodents.

"We wish to point out, too, that only the exceptional weasel becomes a poultry killer. In most cases apparently it is a fully-grown male that does the killing. There are exceptions, of course, but when we see a large weasel actively engaged in rodent hunting within a few feet of a brood of newly hatched chickens and not even looking at them, we must at least pause to ask if this animal is the enemy that we were taught to believe it to be."

A suggestion that weasels sometimes obtain the prey killed by hawks is offered by Criddle and Criddle (1925:147) who write: "Hawks are not always the aggressors, as is shown by an incident reported by Mr. H. L. Seamans, of Lethbridge, Alberta. Mr. Seamans noted a large buzzard suddenly fly straight upwards from a fence post, and then alight upon another one some distance away. A little while afterward this bird once more arose in the same manner as before, and presently repeated the performance again. An investigation then followed and revealed that a Long-tailed Weasel was following the hawk from post to post.

"We should hardly expect a weasel to attempt to capture a bird of the above type. On the other hand, it is possible that these animals might be able to startle a hawk sufficiently to cause it to drop its prey, which would thus provide food for the weasel."

The following frequency index is compiled from the foregoing data on prey of _Mustela frenata_.

Moles (family _Talpidae_), 5 Shrews (family _Soricidae_), 26 Pigmy weasel (_Mustela rixosa_), 1 Ground squirrels (genus _Citellus_), 23 Chipmunks (genus _Tamias_), 38 Tree squirrel (possibly all _Tamiasciurus_), 8 Flying squirrel (genus _Glaucomys_), 1 Pocket gophers (family _Geomyidae_), 34 Mice (order _Rodentia_), 96 Harvest mice (genus _Reithrodontomys_), 36 Grasshopper mouse (genus _Onychomys_), 1 Deer mice (genus _Peromyscus_), 235 Cotton rat (genus _Sigmodon_), 2 Wood rats (genus _Neotoma_), 14 Meadow mice (genus _Microtus_), 248 Muskrat (genus _Ondatra_), 1 Old World rats (genus _Rattus_), 19 House mouse (genus _Mus_), 1 Jumping mouse (genus _Zapus_), 5 Varying hare (_Lepus americanus_), 5 Rabbits (genus _Sylvilagus_), 48 small birds, 32 chickens, 17 lizard, 1 snakes, 4 insects, 3

More significant than the above compilation, of course, are the results of careful studies of the food of the long-tailed weasel in restricted areas. Examples of such studies are those of Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941) and Hamilton (1933:333).

According to Hamilton's (1933:332) observations on captive weasels, "There seems to be little relative difference in the amount they eat, regardless of their activities.

"In general, more food is taken in summer than in winter. Usually about a third their weight every 24 hours is eaten, but a growing young weasel will consume much more. A young male _noveboracensis_, weighing 145 grams, consumed an entire chipmunk, fur and bones, weighing 85 grams, in 24 hours. A day later it ate all of a partly grown rat, 105 grams, in the same length of time."

Moore (1945:253) records that a captive male that he obtained at Gainesville, Florida, consumed, on the average, between 63 and 70 grams of flesh and blood per day. The weasel itself weighed approximately 320 grams.

Sanderson (1949:413), concerning seven young weasels from Manitoba, that he raised in captivity, writes: "From the fifth to the seventh week of age, they consumed approximately 22 per cent of their body weight per day; from the eighth to the tenth week (just before reaching mature size) they consumed approximately 24 per cent; but after reaching maturity they consumed only 18 per cent. When given all the food they would take in one day, they ate as much as 40 per cent of their body weight."

Criddle and Criddle (1925:143, 146) say that weasels drinking at a bird trough "held their mouths very close to the water and as far as we could see, lapped the liquid up with rapid movements of the tongue. As a rule, after drinking, they would merely spring to the ground and vanish amid a bunch of scolding birds, but occasionally we have seen an animal slowly drag itself through the water and follow this performance by some rapid gambols, or a quick run, a method of drying which most of us have practiced in our youth." According to Hamilton's (1933:332) observations on captives, "Weasels are great drinkers, and while they take but little at a time, about 25 c.c. is drunk by a large animal during a day. . . ."

Reproduction

Philip L. Wright's several papers (1942A, 1942B, 1947, 1948A, and 1948B) reporting on his detailed studies of _Mustela frenata_ (subspecies _oribasus_ and _longicauda_) in captivity have yielded a large share of the precise information that we have concerning breeding and reproduction in this species. He has found that a single litter, of up to 9 young is born in the spring, usually in April. At three months of age the females "are full grown." The young males remain sexually immature during the first summer but the young females, as well as the females which are more than a year old, come into heat in the midsummer and are bred by the adult males. After a long period of quiescence lasting for several months, the embryos resulting from these matings become active in early spring and develop to full term in less than 27 days after they become implanted. The adult males are sexually active from April into August, when the testes are at maximal size and are conspicuous in the scrotum. A gradual regression takes place starting in August and extending into September. By October the testes may be fully regressed and the molt to white may start in this month. The white winter weasel, of either sex, is sexually inactive. The testes of the sexually active male in early spring and late summer are seven to eight times the size of the fully regressed testes. Females which had borne and suckled young were first found to be in oestrus 65 to 104 days after birth of the young. Lactation lasts for approximately 5 weeks. In 18 litters the length of the gestation period varied from 220 to 337 days with an average of 279 days. The female in heat has the vulva much swollen and she will remain in this condition for several weeks if not bred. Wright (1948A) describes the actual mating as beginning with a scuffle after which the male grabs the female by the scruff of the neck with his teeth and holds her until she becomes subdued when he clasps her lower abdomen with his front feet and arches his back over her posterior regions. The two animals remain locked in this position usually for two hours and sometimes for longer than three hours. If the animals are left together, copulation may take place again on the same day or upon succeeding days.

Hamilton (1933:316-321) writes of a freshly born _M. f. noveboracensis_ that it ". . . was pink and much wrinkled. The wetness . . . did not entirely obscure a few sparse, rather long, white hairs . . . over its back and head. It had the pronounced and extraordinarily long neck of the adult." At one day of age the average weight of six individuals in the litter was 3.1 grams, which is 3 per cent of the weight of the adult female and 1-1/2 per cent of the weight of an adult male. At two weeks of age "The silky white hair . . . obscures the general flesh color of the skin, evident a week earlier. The hair on the back of the head and neck, also over the shoulders, is slightly longer than that of the back . . ." but there is no crest or mane or pompadour at this or any other age such as characterizes the juvenal ermine. When 21 days old one young male "hurried from the nest chamber and commenced to eat some meat." At three and a half weeks "They are all eating small pieces of meat. . . . The canine teeth have made their appearance in both the upper and lower jaw, but just a hint of the incisors show. Some of the cheek teeth are through, as the meat appears to be thoroughly masticated by the little ones." On the 36th and 37th days the eyes opened. Sanderson (1949:415) found that a litter of seven young of _Mustela frenata longicauda_, from Manitoba, raised in captivity, "reached the peak of their growth" at approximately ten weeks of age.

Several nests have been found. In Manitoba, Sanderson (1949:412) excavated a burrow at the mouth of which he had trapped the adult female and in which he found eight young approximately five weeks old. The "burrow was about three inches in diameter, with two chambers at a depth of twelve inches. One of these was empty, the other contained the young. The two surface-openings were but two feet apart and the entire burrow was no more than three feet long. . . . The meager nest material consisted entirely of finely chopped grass. There was no mouse hair present, no accumulation of fecal material, and no storehouse containing food."

Charles O. Handley has written me that on January 25, 1929, on the Sinkola Plantation, Thomas County, Georgia, he investigated the living quarters of a family of five weasels, four of which had been shot five days before by a hunter. According to the hunter each of the four which had been killed was approximately two-thirds the size of one which escaped into a hole in the ground. Handley found that the weasels had been using as headquarters a burrow in the trunk of an old uprooted oak as well as a nearby gopher burrow. The burrow in the oak was approximately ten feet long and had been excavated in the rotten wood. In a distance of fifty feet along the gopher tunnel there were several used openings with pathways leading away from each. On February 6, Handley, with the help of a friend, trapped a large male weasel near this place.

Criddle and Criddle (1925:143) describe a female which, one winter, slept in a bag of feathers in a basement of a house occupied by one of the authors; another weasel in winter made its headquarters in a threshing machine. The nest of the latter "was somewhat roughly constructed and consisted of a convenient bunch of straw and chaff under the cylinder."

Harper (1927:303) in the Okefinokee Swamp of Georgia dislodged a weasel from the house of a wood rat and was told of a den found in the swamp "in the trunk of a hollow cypress tree" from which a mother weasel and three young "about the size of mice" were obtained. "The bed contained, I suppose, a bushel or more of rabbit hair, rat hair, and squirrel hair. It looked like it must have been used as a den for several years, although there was no stink that I could detect except the musk from the old Weasel." Another female and three young approximately half grown were found in a hollow pine log.

Between January 6 and April 12, 1940, on 640 acres of land, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, four weasels were studied and each weasel used only one den in this period (Quick, 1944:78). Criddle (1930:279) remarks that _M. f. longicauda_ at Aweme, Manitoba, often makes its temporary headquarters in the burrows of pocket gophers (_Thomomys_). A female and three young weasels were found by Shaw (1921:167) using a nest of a mountain beaver in the burrow of that animal. Green (1936), in May, in Gratiot County, Michigan, saw a weasel enter a hole under a decayed log and investigated finding four young weasels in a nest mostly of _Microtus_ fur.

In the early part (winter and spring) of 1939, at Ames, Iowa, Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941) studied four weasels living in four separate dens on 160 acres typical of Iowa farmland and excavated three of the dens. One den was in a weed patch in an old mole run. The nest chamber, approximately nine inches in diameter and six inches below the surface of the ground "was filled with grasses packed in a layer-like formation. In the center of this mass was a nest hollow lined with patches of mouse and shrew fur. Beneath this layer of fur and at the sides of the nest were skins, various bones, and skulls of partially eaten mice and shrews . . . scats [were in the nest]. . . . At intervals, layers of clean grass had been laid over the filth of the former bed, thus giving the nest a stratified appearance." A second den, of a large male, was in a field of sweet clover two feet high in the former burrow of a Franklin's ground squirrel. The nest cell, seven inches in diameter and nine inches below the surface of the ground, "was lined with grasses mixed with much rabbit and mouse fur. Some scats, and bones and fur of mice and shrews were matted together in layers at the bottom of the nest." When this den was abandoned the male weasel occupied, for a month, another burrow, 20 rods distant, of a Franklin ground squirrel, in the field of sweet clover. The nest cell measured 11 by nine inches and was 11 inches below the surface of the ground. "Two nest layers were present. The first, composed chiefly of coarse straw and grass, had apparently been occupied at some time by a spotted skunk. . . . On top of the skunk nest was the weasel nest composed of fine grasses, mouse fur, and skeletal remains of mice."

Relation of the Sexes to each other and to the young

Quick (1944:75) writes that on March 28, in Michigan, he found the tracks of a male and those of a smaller animal, supposedly a female, meeting. The two "then led along the fence for about 18 chains and both entered the den of the male. . . . Only the tracks of the smaller weasel left the den on the same date. Observation on April 12 showed that the large male still occupied the den." I am at a loss to explain this behavior since breeding would not be expected to occur in late March and since I suppose that the male and female do not live together except in the breeding season. Consequently, I wonder if the sign was wrongly read.