Part 25

The weasel family includes not only the true weasels, but numerous other carnivores, as the sable or marten, mink, ferret, skunk, and land and sea otters, all of which rank among our highly valued fur-bearers. The large weasel may be distinguished from others of its family by the small size and the snakelike proportions of the flattened and pointed head, combined with a long, extremely slender neck and body and a comparatively long tail. The best known of these animals are the stoat of the northern parts of the Old World (_Mustela erminea_) and its close relative in northern North America (_Mustela arcticus_), the winter skins of which furnish the famed ermine, once sacred to the trappings of royalty.

The northern weasels are strongly marked by their habit of changing their brown coat to one of snowy white at the beginning of winter. To the south the change becomes less complete as the winter snows decrease, and south of the limit of snow the brown coat is retained throughout the year. The time of change depends on the coming of the snow and varies with the year, and the time of resumption of the brown coat in spring depends in the same way on the season. The white winter coat of the larger and medium-sized species is accompanied by a strongly contrasting jet black tip to the tail.

Weasels are circumpolar in distribution and occupy nearly all parts of Europe, Asia, and North and South America, the greatest number and variety of species occurring in North America. Surprisingly enough, the largest of these eminently northern animals is found in the forests of the American tropics. The Arctic weasel ranges to the northernmost polar lands of North America, where its presence has been recorded many times by ice-bound explorers. Other species are more or less generally distributed over the remainder of the continent. In Mexico I have found them from sea level to above timberline, at more that 13,000 feet altitude on the high volcanoes.

The strong personality of the weasels as a group is based mainly on their extraordinary celerity of movement, their courage, and their insatiable desire to kill. They are not satisfied with supplying the call for food, but whenever opportunity arises kill from sheer lust of slaughter.

Their slender forms enable them to follow their prey to the remotest depths of their retreats, and that all rodents have an abiding horror of them is shown by the effect of a weasel’s appearance. Rabbits, although many times their size, become easy victims, and in one instance when a large rat, which had fought its human captor viciously, was put in a cage with a weasel, it at once lost all its courage and permitted itself to be killed without an effort at defense.

Weasels are wonderfully endowed for their predatory work and are undoubtedly the most perfectly organized machines for killing that have been developed among mammals. Their keen eyes are constantly alert to observe everything about them, their ears are attuned to catch the faintest squeak of a mouse or cry of any other small animal, and their powers of scent are very great. When hunting they dart in and out of the holes of rodents, among crevices in the rocks, or through brush piles, pausing now and then to stand upright on their hind feet, the head swaying to and fro as they peer about. The squeak of a mouse starts them instantly in search of it, and like a dog they trail rabbits and other rodents by scent.

As a rule, weasels are terrestrial, but in wooded country they climb trees and leap from branch to branch with all the ease of squirrels. In most localities they are not common, but now and then, where conditions are peculiarly favorable, they become numerous. At one naturalist’s camp in the upper Yukon they were surprisingly abundant, so much so that more than forty were caught in a few days in traps set among broken rocks. There they were extremely bold, hunting for their prey among the rocks within a few feet of the trappers.

The prey of weasels includes almost every kind of small rodent and bird living within their territory. They feed especially upon northern hares, cottontails, conies, ground squirrels, chipmunks, tree squirrels, wood rats, mice, lemmings, quail, ptarmigan, spruce and ruffed grouse, ducks, and numberless other small species. They are also very destructive to domestic fowl, often killing thirty or forty in a night. They unhesitatingly attack rodents many times their own weight.

Once when hunting on the open plain near the southern end of the Mexican table-land, I saw at some distance what appeared to be a brown ball rolling about on the ground. This was soon determined to be a weasel fastened to one of the large and powerful pocket gophers of that region. The weasel had its teeth set in the back of the neck of the gopher, while the latter was blindly trying to tear itself loose. I fired an ineffectual shot at the weasel and it vanished like a flash in the open tunnel of the gopher. As I drew near, the gopher, still in fighting mood, faced me with bared teeth. Later, when I removed its skin, I found that the weasel had torn loose the attachment of the heavy neck muscles to the back of the skull until only a thin layer remained to protect the spinal column. This had been accomplished without breaking the thin, but extremely tough, skin of the gopher.

When a weasel is attacking an animal which resists, like a large ground squirrel, it raises its head and sways its long neck back and forth, its eyes glittering with excitement as it watches for an opening to spring forward and seize its prey. Its attack is always aimed at a vital point, commonly the brain, the back of the neck, or the jugular vein on the side.

Weasels dig their own burrows under the shelter of slide rock, ledges, stone walls, stumps, and outbuildings, or they occupy hollow trees and the deserted burrows of other animals. In nests thus safely located they have one litter containing an average of from four to six, but sometimes numbering up to twelve, young a year. They are born at any time from April to June, according to the latitude. The number of young in a litter is enough to render weasels very abundant, but this is rarely the case, and raises the question as to the influence which holds their number in check.

They are both nocturnal and diurnal, apparently in almost equal degree, since they are frequently observed hunting in the middle of the day, while their nocturnal raids on poultry houses testify to their activities at night. When hunting they appear like sinister shadows and are persistent in pursuit. The young commonly remain with the female until nearly or quite grown and follow her closely on hunting-trips. It is interesting to see a pack of these deadly carnivores working, the mother leading and the young skirmishing on all sides, now spreading out, now closing in, like a pack of miniature hounds. On these family hunting parties, however, they usually keep close to the rocks, logs, brush, or other cover.

Themselves subject to the law of fang and claw, weasels are killed and eaten by wolves, coyotes, foxes, and various birds of prey. Their very lack of fear perhaps in many cases leads to their destruction.

These representatives of the primitive woodland life continue to occupy practically all of their original range. They visit farms in all parts of the country and I have seen them near the outskirts of Washington.

It is well that weasels are not abundant, for beasts with such innate ferocity and love of killing would otherwise be a menace to the existence of many useful species of birds and mammals, especially the game birds. In many places they live almost entirely on mice, and there they should be left unmolested; but whenever they locate in the vicinity of a chicken yard the owner will do well to take proper measures for protection.

=THE LEAST WEASEL= (=Mustela rixosus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 554_)

In addition to the larger members of the tribe briefly described in the foregoing sketch, the true weasels include another group of species, so small they may appropriately be termed the dwarfs of their kind. They vary from a half to less than a fourth the size of the larger weasels, but have the same characteristic form and proportions, except that the tail is very short and never tipped with black. Like the larger species, they change their brown summer coat for white at the beginning of winter and back again in spring.

The least weasels are also circumpolar in distribution, but are limited to the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. In England and other parts of the Old World the group is represented by the well-known species _Mustela vulgaris_. In North America several species are known which, between them, share all the continent from the Arctic coast south to Nebraska and Pennsylvania. On the desolate islands extending from the mainland far toward the Pole their place seems to be taken by the ermine.

The dwarf weasels appear to be less numerous and, as a consequence, less known in most parts of America than in England and northern Europe. Our most northern species, _Mustela rixosa_, sometimes called the “mouse weasel,” occupies Alaska and northern Canada and has the distinction of being the smallest known species of carnivore in the world. In this connection it is interesting to note that in Alaska we have associated on the same ground the least weasel and the great brown bear, the smallest and the largest living carnivores.

Least weasels are characterized by the same swift alertness and boldness so marked in the larger species. In fact they are, if possible, even quicker in their movements. Once when camping in spring among scattered snowbanks on the coast of Bering Sea, I had an excellent opportunity to witness their almost incredible quickness. Early in the morning one suddenly appeared on the margin of a snowbank within a few feet, and after craning its neck one way and the other, as though to get a better view of me, it vanished, and then appeared so abruptly on a snowbank three or four yards away that it was almost impossible to follow it with the eye. It was beginning to take on its summer coat of brown and was extremely difficult to locate amid the scattered patches of snow and bare moss of the tundra. Certainly no other mammal can have such flash-like powers of movement.

They feed mainly on mice, lemmings, shrews, small birds, their eggs and young, and insects. Mice furnish a large proportion of their prey and weasels have often been seen following the runways of field mice. Their small size enables them to pursue mice into their underground workings as readily as a ferret enters a rabbit burrow. They also climb trees and bushes with great agility, although nearly always seeking their victims on the ground. The mice upon which they prey are often so much larger than the weasels that they cannot be dragged into the dens. The weasels continue in full activity throughout the winter and constantly burrow into the snow in search of their prey. In the snow or in the ground the holes of this animal are about the diameter of one’s finger.

In the Old World the small weasels are reported to have several litters in a season, each containing five or six young. At Point Barrow, Alaska, a female captured on June 12 still contained twelve embryos. This indicates that only one litter a year would be born there, and that _Mustela rixosa_ is more prolific than its European representative.

In the more southern latitude least weasels live in forests and about farms, sheltering themselves under logs, brush piles, stone walls, and similar cover. They are always restless and filled with curiosity regarding anything of unusual appearance. When one encounters a man it shows no fear, but slyly moving from one shelter to another, now advancing and now retreating, examines the stranger carefully before going on its way. As they devote practically their entire lives to the destruction of field mice, they are valuable friends of the farmer and should have his good will and protection. Unfortunately for these weasels, no discrimination is shown between them and their larger relatives of more injurious habits.

Among the natives of Alaska all weasels are looked upon with great respect on account of their prowess as hunters. I found this feeling peculiarly strong among the Eskimos, whose existence for ages has depended so largely on the products of the chase. Among them the capture of a weasel meant good luck to the hunter, and to take the rarer least weasel was considered a happy omen. The head and entire skin of the least weasel was highly prized for wearing as an amulet or fetich. Young men eagerly purchased them, paying the full value of a prime marten skin in order to wear them as a personal adornment, that they might thus become endowed with the hunting prowess of this fierce little carnivore. Fathers often bought them to attach to the belts of their small sons, so that the youthful hunters might become imbued with the spirit of this “little chief” among mammals.

=THE AMERICAN MINK= (=Mustela vison= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 555_)

In the American mink we have one of the most widely known and valuable fur-bearers of the weasel family. It is a long-bodied animal, but more heavily proportioned than the weasel, and attains a weight of from one and one-half to more than two pounds. It has short legs and walks slowly and rather clumsily with the back arched. When desiring to travel rapidly it moves in a series of rapid easy bounds which it appears able to continue tirelessly.

The minks form a small group of species circumpolar in distribution, and well known in Europe, northern Asia, and in North America. The European animal is closely similar to the North American species and all have the same amphibious habits. The American minks include several different geographic races, which are distributed over all the northern part of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the mouths of the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers to the Gulf coast in the United States. They are absent from the arid Southwestern States.

Few species are more perfectly adapted to a double mode of life than the mink. It is equally at home slyly searching thickets and bottom-land forests for prey or seeking it with otter-like prowess beneath the water. It is a restless animal, active both by day and by night, although mainly nocturnal.

While usually having definite dens to which they return, minks wander widely and for so small an animal hunt over a large territory and pass from one body of water to another. Their wanderings are most pronounced in fall and again during the mating in spring. They are solitary, their companionship with one another not outliving the mating period.

Mink dens are located wherever a safe and convenient shelter is available, and may be a hole in a bank, made by a muskrat or other animal, a cavity under the roots of a tree, a hollow log, a hollow stump, or other place. The nest is made of grass and leaves lined with feathers, hair, and other soft material. A single litter of from four to twelve small and naked young is born during April or May.

The young remain with the mother throughout the summer, and do not leave her to establish themselves until fall, when they are nearly grown. When captured at an early age they are playful and become attached to the person who cares for them. When caught in a trap they become fiercely aggressive, often uttering squalling shrieks, baring their teeth, and fronting their captor with a truculent air of savage rage. The adults have scent sacs located under the tail like those of a skunk. When angry or much excited they can emit from these an exceedingly acrid and offensive odor, but have no power to eject it forcibly at an enemy.

Minks are bold and courageous in their attitude toward other animals, and attack and kill for food species heavier than themselves, like the varying hare and the muskrat. On land they are persistent hunters, trailing their prey skillfully by scent. They eat mice, rats, chipmunks, squirrels, and birds and birds’ eggs of many kinds, including waterfowl, oven-birds, and other ground-frequenting species. About the waterside they vary this diet by capturing fish of many kinds, which they pursue in the water, snakes, frogs, salamanders, insects, crustaceans, and mussels.

Their prowess is shown by their raids on chicken-houses, where they often kill many grown fowls in a night, and sometimes drag birds heavier than themselves long distances to their dens. A remarkable indication of the varied menu of the mink was exhibited in a nest found by Dr. C. H. Merriam, where the owner had gathered the bodies of a muskrat, a red squirrel, and a downy woodpecker.

The value of the mink’s furry coat has led to its steady pursuit by trappers in all climes, from the coast of Florida to the borders of sluggish streams on Arctic tundras. Millions of them have fallen victims to this warfare and their skins have gone to adorn mankind. In spite of this the mink today occupies all its original territory, and each year yields a fresh harvest of furs.

The mink by preference is a forest animal, living along the wooded bottom-lands of rivers or the thicket-grown borders of small streams, where the rich vegetation gives abundance of shelter and at the same time attracts a wealth of small mammals and birds on which it may prey. From these secure coverts it wanders through the surrounding country at night, visiting many chicken-houses on farms and leaving devastation behind. It is persistent and bold in such forays and in locations near its haunts great care must be exercised to guard against it. Minks have repeatedly raided the enclosures of the National Zoological Park in Washington.

Now and then, on the banks of some wild stream, one will try to appropriate the catch lying at the very feet of a lone fisherman. A naturalist fishing on a stream in northern Canada, seeing a mink making free with his catch, set a small steel trap on the bare ground, and holding the attached chain in one hand raised and slowly drew toward him the fish upon which the mink was feeding. The mink, without hesitation, followed the fish and was caught in the trap.

An abundance of food may modify the preference of the mink for wooded or partly wooded country. The marshy and treeless tundra lying near sea-level in the triangle between the coast of Bering Sea, and the lower parts of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers offers such an attractive situation differing from their usual haunts. The sluggish streams and numberless ponds abound with small fish four to five inches long. Minks swarm in this area to such an extent that the Eskimos who inhabit the district are known among the natives of the surrounding region as the “mink people.” Steel traps are used there, but a primitive method is even more successful. A wicker fence is built across a narrow stream and a small fyke fish-trap placed in it. In swimming along the stream minks pass into the trap like fish, and I knew of from 10 to 15 being thus taken in one day.

During my residence in that region from 10,000 to 15,000 mink skins were caught in this tundra district annually, and the supply appeared to be inexhaustible. With the growing occupation of the continent and the increasing demand for furs, however, the numbers of the mink must surely decrease. To forestall the shortage of furs that seems imminent, efforts are now being made to establish fur farming to replace the declining supply of wild furs with those grown under domestication. The mink appears to be well adapted to successful breeding in captivity. The main question to solve is the relation of the cost of caring for the animals to the value of its pelt in the market.

=THE MARTEN, OR AMERICAN SABLE= (=Martes americana= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 555_)

Wild animals possess an endless variety of mental traits which endow them in many instances with marked individualities. Few are more strongly characterized in this respect than the marten. One of the most graceful and beautiful of our forest animals, it frequents the more inaccessible parts of the wilderness and retires shyly before the inroads of the settler’s ax. Its rich brown coat, so highly prized that the pursuit of it goes on winter after winter in all the remote forests of the North, is a source of danger threatening the existence of the species. The full-grown animal weighs five or six pounds and measures nearly three feet in length.

The martens are circumpolar in distribution, and the several species occupy northern lands from England, Europe, and northern Asia to North America. Of the Old World species, the Siberian sable is best known on account of the beauty of its fine, rich fur, which renders it the most valued of all in the fur markets of the world.

The North American marten is a close relative of the Siberian species, and occupies all the wooded parts of North America from the northern limit of trees southward in the forested mountains to Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and the southern part of the Sierra Nevada in California.

Like other members of the weasel tribe, the marten is a fierce and merciless creature of rapine, but unlike the mink and weasel, it avoids the abodes of man and loves the remotest depths of the wilderness.

Martens are endowed with an exceedingly nervous and excitable temperament, combined with all the flashing quickness of weasels. They are more restless than any other among the larger species of their notably restless tribe, and couple with this extraordinary and tireless vigor. This is admirably shown in captivity, when by the hour they dart back and forth, up and down and around their cages with almost incredible speed.

In the forest they climb trees and jump from branch to branch with all the agility of a squirrel--in fact, they pursue and capture red squirrels in fair chase, and have been seen in pursuit of the big California gray squirrel (_Sciurus griseus_). On the ground they move about quickly, hunting weasel-like, under brush piles and other cover.

Practically every living thing within their power falls victim to their rapacity. They eat minks, weasels, squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats, mice of many kinds, conies, snowshoe hares, ruffed and spruce grouse, and smaller birds of all kinds and their eggs, as well as frogs, fish, beetles, crickets, beechnuts, and a variety of small wild fruits. Unlike minks and weasels, they are not known to kill wantonly more than they need for food.

They make nests of grass, moss, and leaves in hollow trees, under logs, among rocks, and in holes in the ground. Sometimes they have been found in possession of a red squirrel’s nest, probably after having slain and devoured the owner.