You can become adept at “reading” these stories if you develop a keen eye for the smallest details on the ground, shrubs, or trees. Of course, knowing where to look and what to look for allows you to collect as much evidence of an animal’s activity as possible, thereby helping you to infer what exactly the animal was doing.

A good winter’s snow is a boon for the hopeful tracker, as an animal’s prints (tracks) can be extraordinarily distinct; indeed, the individual track may be so clearly defined that identification is immediate. A moderate layer of snow also holds clues as to the animal’s wanderings, gait, and size. Last winter had an incredible yield of snow–it was a tracker’s dream. I trudged through a foot to two feet of snow, following the meanderings of coyotes and deer. Near a pond’s edge, I discovered the tracks of what I think is a fisher. However, the tracks could also belong to those of the river otter, an often-sighted swimmer in this pond, or a mink. Measuring the track’s dimensions would help to identify the animal.

Five-toed animals include the weasel, mink, skunk, fisher, and otter, all animals belonging to the family Mustelidae.

Fishers are secretive animals, the renowned foes of porcupines. About the size of a house cat, fishers are excellent climbers, spending much of their time in the canopy. Males typically spend more time on the ground to hunt.

Tracks are not the only obvious signs of animal activity. A thin layer of snow revealed this deer trail in the forest.

Because this winter has been scant of snow, I have looked to wet, sandy ground to locate tracks. There are a couple places I look: a volleyball court at the local park and the soft, sandy ground of a baseball diamond at the local high school. On these sandy soils I often I see the two-toed track of the deer:

This track shows that the hind foot stepped in the same spot as the front foot as the deer was walking.

Coyotes are frequent trotters over the baseball diamond.

Coyotes have four toes with claws.

Red fox tracks, like coyote tracks, have four toes with claws, but the tracks are noticeably smaller and narrower. In addition, red foxes have an inverted V on the heel pad of its front foot. Still, it is difficult to distinguish a small coyote’s track from a red fox’s track. Below is what I believe to be a red fox track found in the volleyball court.

If you plan to go tracking, make sure you have a good animal tracking guide and a ruler or some other tool for measuring length. Unfortunately, when I took these photos, I did not place an object of standard size next to the track to indicate scale.

On Wednesday I am attending a tracking workshop, so there will be more information to come. Happy tracking!

The problem is three fold, 1) that phase state issue.  Snowflakes are delicate ice crystals, and ice has a Mohs hardness of around 1.2-2 at normally cold temperatures.  This is harder than chalk and talc.  Ice acts as a soft rock.  2) Humidity, the ability of the atmosphere to hold water is dependent on temperature.  The same relative humidity at different temperatures means very much less total available water at a colder temperature.  At cold temperatures things dry out quickly, which is part of the reason deciduous trees drop their leaves, and why other plants cover their leaves in waxy coatings or thick layers of hair.  3) the ground is frozen, locking up surface water and making it unavailable to plants and animals.

These factors combine to make winter a stressful time for plants, but for animals the cold makes it even more difficult.  Animals have several options for dealing with cold; they can hibernate, dropping their temperatures and metabolic needs to a bare minimum and wait out the difficult times; they can insulate themselves with layers of fur or fat to protect from the cold; or they can ramp their metabolism up to generate more heat.  The problem is that generating heat via metabolic activity takes water… where do you get it in the winter?

Today was a warm winter day in my portion of Vermont, somewhere in the high 20s, and the snow had melted away some since the last snowfall.  About 50 feet behind my house I came across the tracks from a fisher that had been hunting several days earlier.

Being inquisitive, I followed the tracks.

In typical mustelid fashion they wandered semi-randomly across the landscape, but, as I followed them, more and more tracks came together, making a veritable highway of frozen tracks in the snow.

More and more tracks came together, both of fisher and of deer, coyote, and bobcat.  Clearly I was onto something, but what?

At first, when it was just fisher tracks, I had been hoping to find a den.  If I could find a den, I might be able to justify finally buying a game camera, something I have wanted for a long time.  I found a dead sugar maple that might be a den, but as I continued exploring, that was not where the greatest number of tracks was.  Maybe I would find a kill site.  A scattering of porcupine quills or several puffs of squirrel fur.

Nothing of the sort greeted me, but what I did find was a small frozen pond fed by ground water and surrounded by tracks and scat from all sorts of animals.

Ground water, that is the key.  The earth has tremendous thermal mass.  Thermal mass is a sort of battery or reservoir of heat (there really is no such thing as cold, it’s all varying degrees of heat, with no heat being 0 kelvin, or absolute zero).  In my region of the US the ground stays at a relatively constant 50 degrees F.  In the hot and humid summers that means all the rocks sweat, condensation forming on their (relatively) cold surfaces, and well water is refreshingly cool to drink and chilly to bathe in.  In the winter this means that seeps and springs stay running and liquid all winter, and well water feels deceptively warm (though still chilly to bathe in).

The fisher I had been following was heading to a source of water, water that drew numerous other animals, including a bobcat that left scat at the base of a hemlock tree and probably hunted the other animals that came for water.

The fisher I had been following, and, perhaps several others, has spent quite a lot of time at this pond.  The tracks were melted into the ice all around where the liquid water came into the pond.

Even in a place as water rich as Vermont, water can still be a precious commodity.

(Photo by the US National Park Service)

As we have seen, members of the weasel family are typically strong for their size, able to successfully hunt and kill prey larger than they are. We have the weasels, able to take down larger rabbits. We have the badgers, known for their toughness. So just how incredible would the largest land-dwelling mustelid be?

The answer is: quite a bit incredible, yes.

The largest land-dwelling mustelid is the wolverine, also known as the glutton and the skunk bear for reasons that will become apparent. It is the size of a medium dog, much larger than a badger or a weasel, and in fact it was once believed to be a sort of small bear-like animal. But it is smaller than a wolf or a bear, and much less heavy as well. A typical wolverine is about three feet long and weighs 40 lbs. They live in the far northern reaches of Alaska, Canada, Scandanavia, and Russia, though they are also found in low numbers along the Rocky Mountains.

As with weasels, a wolverine can take down prey much larger than itself, including deer and caribou. It is fast and ferocious, able to move quickly through deep snow, and in the winter it will often target animals that are struggling in snow drifts.

When challenged by wolves, bears, or mountain lions, a wolverine will often stand its ground and fight even though it may be outweighed by a factor of ten or greater. Sometimes the wolverine loses these contests, but other times it can drive away a much larger predatore through sheer stubborness and anger. It has even been known to successfully chase away polar bears, the largest land-dwelling carnivores in the world.

The wolverine preys on almost any mammal that moves, be it porcupine, squirrel, beaver, rabbit, lemming, deer, sheep, fox, lynx, and even fellow weasels. In the winter a large part of its diet comes from carrion. Wolverines will scavenge from old wolf kills or drive wolves away from fresh kills. They have a special tooth in their upper jaw that allows them to effectively tear at frozen flesh.

When it finds a meal, the wolverine will dig in voraciously and eat as much as it can as quickly as possible, an adaptation for a life where it could be challenged by another predator at any moment. This has earned it the nickname glutton.

He's not gluttonous, he's just big-stomached. (Photo by Zefram)

Its other name, skunk bear, is derived from the smelly anal glands possessed by the wolverine. It does not spray like a skunk, but it leaves behind an awful-smelling odour in order to mark territory and communicate with mates.

A wolverine’s hair is especially valuable for people living in the far north, as it is extremely water-repellent and able to resist all but the mightiest frosts.

In recent years the wolverine is being found in territories where it has not been seen for sometimes hundreds of years, including California, Colorado, and Michigan. Scientists are not sure why a small number of the animals appear to be migrating slowly southward. Perhaps they’re just tired of the snow.

As you may know, one of the most popular comic book characters is named after the wolverine. This character is famous for being highly ferocious and tough despite his smaller size, and is easily the most famous Canadian superhero of all time. Could this be why wolverines are headed to California? It’s a good time to get in on all that Hollywood fame.

A black-footed ferret, one of the wild weasels of North America. (Photo by PDH)

The specific group of animals known by science as weasels is comprised of 17 species of generally small mustelids found everywhere but Australia, though most weasels keep a firm grip on the northern hemisphere and refuse to be budged.

Weasels are small-scale predators. They are fearsome hunters of rodents, birds, and other small animals that a larger predator might overlook, and their bodies are specifically adapted for this task. The typical weasel body is long and narrow, allowing it to easily squeeze into small places such as bird nests and rodent dens, so that even very small prey is unable to hide. Weasels are incredibly fast and silent on their small feet. By the time you notice there’s a weasel hunting you, it’s already too late.

This ability to slip into tiny spaces has earned the weasel a reputation for cunning, and many cultural depictions of weasels show them as evil animals. This is of course nonsense, as no animal is evil, but sometimes the weasel makes it hard to believe so. For example, there are weasels, such as the stoat, that line their dens with the skins of their dead prey. This is purely practical, but really, dear stoat, why do you have to choose a method that seems so bloodthirsty?

Because no one can stop me. Mwa ha ha. (Photo by Steve Hillebrand)

The stoat is an interesting animal, and one of the best-known weasels. It is also known as the ermine, and in North America as the short-tailed weasel, and it is found throughout the northern hemisphere. Like other weasels it will find the den or nest of another animal and slip inside to kill everything that lives there. Even if it does not eat it all at once, it will save the rest for later. Rather than digging its own den, it simply lives in the dens (or sometimes bird nests) of its victims, often lined with the former occupants’ own skins. From this rather gruesome home it strikes out to hunt again, taking over a new home if it finds one that strikes its fancy.

The stoat was accidentally introduced to New Zealand as well, where it is considered a harmful invasive species. It preys on birds that have developed no natural defense measures against such a creature.

Many weasels weave their heads back and forth when hunting. It was once commonly believed that the weasel was doing this to hypnotize its victim, but instead this behaviour allows the weasel to better pick up the scent of its prey on the air.

The smallest weasel is the least weasel, which on average has a body length somewhere between six inches and less than a foot. Despite its size it is as dangerous as any weasel, and is capable of hunting and killing a rabbit that is as much as ten times its own weight. This is the equivalent of a human male killing a bison with his bare hands.

One member of the weasels, the European polecat, is better known in its domesticated form, the domestic ferret. Ferrets are long and narrow like other weasels, and are excellent at catching mice or rats. Domestic ferrets can be good pets, though their weasel nature makes them likely to get into tiny places where they can be hard to find.

There exists a myth that weasels are poisonous. You can find, on several Internet sites, information stating that unless you take an antidote, a weasel bite will kill you within 24 hours. This is entirely false. The myth stems from centuries ago, when people would witness a weasel use its sharp little teeth to kill larger prey, such as rabbits. They assumed that the only way this could happen is if the weasel had venom like a snake. However, the weasel is simply very good at using its sharp teeth to bite its prey in the right places, hang on tight, and wait for it to die. No poison involved whatsoever. So if a weasel ever bites you, don’t panic. Simply get yourself tested in case it carried any disease, and scold the weasel for such rude behaviour.

Related animals, such as the marten and the American mink, are not true weasels. They are larger, but have the same narrow sort of shape. They too are excellent hunters, able to squirm into tight spaces to track down prey.

An American badger emerging from its den. (Photo by Jonathunder)

There are ten species of badger in the world, and they are found on all of the main continents except South America and of course Australia. They are relatively large members of the weasel family, though they are smaller than otters. In contrast to the otters, which spend much of their time in the water, the badgers are specialized instead for spending part of their time underground.

Badgers have short legs with claws built for digging, and they are exceptional at quickly tearing a hole in the earth. They use this ability for dual purposes. Firstly, badgers dig burrows in the ground where they sleep. Secondly, they are able to quickly dig up and capture a rodent if they detect one moving beneath the soil. Though badgers will eat a variety of small animals, they like bears are true omnivores and will eat just about anything.

A badger den is called a sett, and the European badger digs the most complex dens of all badger species. These dens can have up to fifty different entrances spread across a wide area, and can contain multiple nesting chambers, sleeping areas, and other constructions beneath the ground. The European badger, which is also the largest badger at up to three feet long, is a social badger that can live in groups (other badgers are more solitary). Multiple families can share and make use of one large interconnected series of chambers in the most complex setts. Badgers in northern climates also sleep during the winter in their dens, but as with bears this is not a true hibernation.

These animals have a reputation for toughness and fierceness, and it is well-earned. If cornered in its den or if protecting its young, a badger will attack with its strong claws and fight to the death. They are capable of driving away much larger animals such as wolves or bears, and sometimes kill coyotes. Over short distances a badger can run as fast as a human. Badgers will eat honey from beehives with no concern for stings, even if they are swarmed by angry bees. The honey badger of Africa kills and eats porcupines and venomous snakes. Badgers will also kill prickly hedgehogs and turn them inside-out to eat them. To make a long story short, you mess with a badger entirely at your own peril.

Even the smallest badgers are rather tough. These are several species of ferret-badger that live in Asia. Shaped more like a ferret than a typical badger, they are nonetheless savage when provoked, and also capable of making a great stink to ward off predators.

If a badger ever gets its teeth in you, well, good luck. Their upper and lower jaws, unlike most mammals, are firmly locked together. This limits the jaw’s movement, but means that once the badger has clamped down on something it is very difficult to remove. It is impossible to dislocate a badger’s jaw without snapping its bones clear in half.

An interesting and somewhat hilarious badger story recently came out of Iraq and the conflict there. In 2007, near the city of Basra, wild rumours began to spread of man-eating killer badgers roaming the land, terrifying and unnatural beasts unleashed by nearby British soldiers in order to spread panic. The beasts were said to be three feet long, fast, and with the face of a monkey, capable of killing humans and cattle.

Soon a handful of farmers began to produce corpses of the awful monsters that they had killed. Upon analysis it turned out that they were honey badgers, which are found in Africa and the Middle East, but had never existed near Basra before. It was determined that when a marshland north of the city was re-flooded to reverse the actions of Saddam Hussein, who had drained it many years before, honey badgers living there were driven south. Needless to say, honey badgers kill neither humans nor cattle, but are indeed fast and large as far as badgers are concerned.

A honey badger or ... a man-eating killer badger? (Photo by Jaganath)

All of this culminates in what must surely be one of the best phrases ever uttered by a British military spokesperson: “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.”

A European otter chills out on a log. (Photo by Bernard Landgraf)

Wherever there is water, there oughta be an otter. Sadly, for they are wonderful creatures, otters are not found everywhere, and many of them are endangered, but they do have a very wide range. They aren’t easily located, but the world’s 12 species of otter inhabit half of North America, most of South America, most of Europe, broad swaths of Asia, and a tiny corner of Africa.

Of all the various mustelids, the otters are perhaps the most social, playful, and intelligent. They have taken to a semi-aquatic lifestyle, splitting their time between water and land. They have long, slim bodies for moving through the water, and webbed paws to help them swim. Their hair traps a layer of air within it, which keeps their skin dry and warm when underwater.

Otters are highly active animals, eating a great deal of food to keep up with their high metabolism, designed to keep them alive in cold waters. They can typically spend up to five hours hunting every day. To hunt, they normally chase prey such as fish through the water, or forage for food on shores and riverbanks or in the ground beneath the water, such as with clams and shellfish.

When not hunting, otters enjoy relaxation and play. Not all otters live in groups, but those that do are highly social. Regardless, otters appear to take great pleasure in having fun merely for the sake of having fun, with no survival mechanism behind the behaviour. They will slide down slopes in mud or snow, splash in the water, and have a grand old time.

One of the most interesting otters is the sea otter, found on the Pacific coast of North America. It is the only otter that lives an almost entirely marine lifestyle. Their fur is much denser and richer than that of other otters, and as a result they were hunted and trapped nearly to extinction until protection was legislated in 1911. There were fewer than 2000 remaining by that time, but this has recovered to just over 100,000. They have also populated islands across the Bering Strait in Russia.

Though it is very small as far as marine mammals go, the sea otter is the heaviest mustelid. Despite this, it is extremely bouyant and floats easily in the sea. It can close its ears and nostrils when swimming, and its hind feet are developed for swimming. It is one of the few dog-like carnivorans with retractable claws.

The sea otter is one of the few animals known to use tools. When breaking open a clam or a similar morsel of food, the sea otter will float on its back, place a rock on its stomach, and hammer the clam against the rock until it cracks open. It often takes several dozen good whacks to get at the meat within. It will also use rocks to knock other types of sea creatures free from rocks and crevices so they can be eaten.

If you look closely at the sea otter’s role in its environment, you get an excellent example of natural balance. Sea otters often live in kelp forest areas, and they eat sea urchins. The sea urchins in turn eat the kelp, which means that the presence of the sea otter keeps the sea urchins from expanding their population and killing all of the kelp. This in turn benefits all of the animals that live in or make use of kelp forests, including the sea otter.

Sea otters not only live and hunt in the water, they also sleep there. To keep from drifting, they will often wrap their bodies in kelp that is anchored to the sea floor before falling asleep. Members of a sea otter group have also been known to hold paws while they sleep so that they don’t lose one another.

Admit it. This is the cutest thing you have seen all week. (Photo by Joe Robertson)

Mother sea otters are incredibly devoted. Though in rare cases they may abandon their pup if they cannot find enough food, for the most part they are shining examples of motherhood. A mother will give her pup almost constant attention, teaching it, grooming it, feeding it, and cradling it close to her. Some sea otter pups will nurse with their mothers until they are very nearly adults. A pup separated from its mother will cry until she returns, which is why she normally only goes out when the pup is asleep. If a pup dies, which unfortunately happens more often than not, the mother has been known to carry the pup’s body with her for several days afterward.

The giant otter, also known as the river wolf, is found in South America, specifically in the Amazon basin, and is the longest of the otters at six feet. It is also endangered due to hunting and poaching. Each giant otter has a unique marking on the underside of its neck, and when giant otters meet one another they periscope, which is to say they thrust their head and neck up out of the water to display their marking. This allows giant otters to recognize one another as individuals. It is the most vocal of the otters, barking, snorting, screaming, growling, and humming to one another.

The most widespread otter is the Eurasian Otter, found from Spain and the edge of North Africa to the northern reaches of Scandanavia, in Turkey, across the middle of Russia, and in southeast Asia, with many stops in between. They will take to the sea or rivers with equal facility, but are not quite as specialized for marine life as the sea otter.

The smallest otter is the Oriental small-clawed otter, found in southeast Asia, including India, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. It is so-named because its claws do not actually extend from its paws. The claws are in there, but they don’t stick out, and consequently are entirely useless. The otter makes up for this by having particularly dextrous and nimble paws. The Oriental small-clawed otter is only three feet long, much of which is comprised of tail.

In Bangladesh, the small-clawed otter has been tamed and trained by fishermen for many generations, to chase fish into their nets, a practice that is less common with the advent of more modern fishing techniques. Interestingly, this is not the only example of Asian fishermen using trained wild animals to help them catch more fish, but that is a story for a future article, when in the distant future we come to a certain type of bird.

A striped skunk of North America. (Photo by Dan Dzurisin)

In the land of two-nostriled creatures, the one-glanded skunk is king.

This is not entirely true, but it is awfully close. Skunks, of which there are 12 species in the world today, are one of those fortunate species that almost nothing preys upon. This is because when threatened, the skunk will spray a jet of noxious, painful, horrifically smelly liquid from an anal gland, sending even the biggest, baddest creature running for the hills.

A skunk’s spray is accurate up to ten feet, and contains a hellish mix of chemicals that can burn the eyes and stick to hair or clothes for a miserably long time. The skunk will only use this as a last resort, for it needs time to recharge its spray after five or six uses. Most animals learn to recognize that skunks are bad business, and the skunk’s telltale black and white markings, which are plainly visible even to colour-blind predators, are a warning to keep away. Most of the time a skunk simply has to raise its large tail and make angry sounds if threatened, and the other animal, if it is wise, will leave the skunk alone.

However the skunk is still preyed upon by large predatory owls. Like most birds, owls have little to no sense of smell; the skunk can spray it all over and the owl won’t even care. If you ever run into a stinky great horned owl, now you know the story.

Because nature is all about balance, the skunk’s immunity from most predators is balanced out by the fact that it has terrible eyesight. Any object more than about ten feet from the skunk becomes a blur, which is why you see so many skunks killed by traffic. Despite their magnificent glands, the vast majority of skunks die before they turn three years old. If they ever learn how to make eyeglasses, we are all in deep trouble.

This Molina's hog-nosed skunk of South America can't see you very well from there, but you probably don't want to get any closer. (Photo by Inao Vasquez)

A skunk is an omnivore, and eats a healthy mix of plant food and animal food. They love manufactured cat food, and in human environments they will chow down on any they find left out, or sometimes find a way inside sheds or garages to get at this tasty treat. Like raccoons, they will also eat from human garbage.

But their favourite food, when they can get it, is the honeybee. A skunk that finds a hive is a lucky skunk indeed. It will scratch at the outside to rouse the angry bees, some of which will emerge to fend off the intruder and protect their honey. This is a trap, for the skunk isn’t after honey. Its thick fur protects it from bee stings, and the happy skunk will pick bees out of the air as a delicious snack.

In another similarity with raccoons, skunks are susceptible to rabies, but it is very rare that a skunk ever bites a human.

There are a few different kinds of skunk, and most are found in North and South America. The striped skunk, with its two white stripes that run down its back, is the most recognized skunk, and also the type best suited for domestication, as some people keep pet skunks with the scent glands removed. The spotted skunks have a stranger, less stripey pattern, and are faster than the striped skunk.

The hog-nosed skunks are the largest skunks, and are found mostly in Central and South America. These skunks have backs that are almost entirely white. The final type of skunk is the stink badger, which lives in Indonesia. They are skunks, not badgers, though they look more like badgers and were long considered to be exactly that.

The mustelids are the weasels, and so much more. (Photo by Keven Law)

The mustelids are both the largest and most diverse family of carnivorans, consisting in our definition of approximately 70 species of all sizes and behaviour. I say “in our definition” because once again I am purposefully ignoring a very recent change to the classification. I am apparently very bad at this sticking-to-the-rules thing. As you might have inferred from the articles so far, these sorts of changes occur all the time as new evidence is found, new research methods are developed, and one scientist defeats another in a cage match and gets to decide what’s what.

This is not a bad thing, because one of the tenants of science is that the rules can change if evidence says that they should. This is of particular note for the mustelids, because they are such varied creatures. New methods may yet pull out even more new families and set them aside from the larger mustelid foundation, saying this is a mustelid and this is something different, but for our purposes it is largely academic, and we will once again stick with a slightly older classification for brevity’s sake.

Speaking of brevity, I digress. What is a mustelid, you must be asking. A mustelid can be many things, but the easiest way to think about them is to call them the weasel family. This does them a great disservice, for there is much more than that to be found within their ranks, but a majority of mustelids are animals that could in one way or another be called a weasel, including the ferret, the polecat the stoat, the marten, and the mink. Also included in the mustelids are the otters, the badgers, the wolverine, and the skunks. The skunks are the group that has recently been given its own family, but we will continue to lump them with mustelids here and hope that they don’t mind.

What do all of these animals have in common? Not a lot, to tell you the truth. They are typically (but not always) small animals with short, rounded ears, thick fur, and short legs. With only one exception they possess anal glands that can emit scents of various intensities, culminating in the skunk’s legendary odiferous spray. Many mustelids use these glands more for communication than for defense.

Beyond these commonalities, mustelids are splendidly unalike. The smallest, the least weasel, is barely larger than a mouse, while the largest, the giant otter, can be eight feet long. Some mustelids live most of their lives in trees, while others such as the badger dig tunnels beneath the ground and otters are found in the water. Some eat rodents, some eat shellfish, some eat insects, some eat anything they can fit in their mouths. There are mustelids that a human could kill with one hand, while the wolverine is capable of crushing bone in its jaws and chasing full-grown bears away from its kills. The sea otter is one of the few animals in the world that uses tools, and one type of polecat has been tamed to create our modern day domestic ferret.

This is the European polecat, from which the domestic ferret was tamed. It's funny because it's on a pole, but it's not a cat. (Photo by Peter Trimming)

Mustelids are a very old branch of Carnivora, and have been around for roughly 40 million years. Many mustelids reproduce using what is called embryonic diapause. What this means is that pregnancy does not necessarily take place directly after mating. Once the embryo forms, it can be withheld from the uterus for several months if conditions are not good, for example if there is a drought or a food shortage. When conditions improve, the embryo will enter the uterus and pregnancy will begin without the need for further mating. This is very useful in maximizing the survival rate for young.

Many mustelids have thick, often luxurious fur that humans have found very attractive over the years. Much of the fur trade that drove European and Russian expansion several hundred years ago was based on the valuable fur of mustelids such as the marten, the mink, and the otter. The sea otter was nearly driven to extinction by this process, while another species, the sea mink, was in fact destroyed to the last individual. Today fake fur has taken up some of the demand, while fur farms, which can include minks raised for their pelts, covers a majority of the remainder, though both legal controlled trapping and poaching also continue.

There are so many mustelids that we cannot hope to cover them all without writing a book’s worth of articles. The highlights we will strike include the skunks, the otters, the badgers, the weasels, and the wolverine.

Wild mustelid distribution. They are pretty much everywhere.

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MARBLED POLECAT as TOTEM

REPRESENTING:

Fighting back, putting on a good show, not being afraid to stand up for yourself, confronting what you fears you, seeking out problems before they find you, metaphorically and literally baring your teeth at threats, ripping what is inconvenient out of your life, being gutsy and bolshy, being able to sniff out drama, recharging on your own, maintaining your boundaries.

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DESCRIPTION

The marbled polecat is a small mustelid found in south-eastern Europe and western China. They are predominantly solitary, and maintain territories within which they are very active, rarely sleeping in the same den twice. They will often be aggressive to each other in encounters. They will use the dens of other burrowing animals and stay in underground irrigation tunnels, or dig out their own dens with their long, strong claws, using their teeth to remove roots and grasses. They are good climbers, but prefer to hunt on the ground. They are omnivorous, and eat many species of rodent, small hares, birds, lizards, fish, frogs and insects. They will also eat fruit, grass, kept birds (poultry and pigeons) and steal human food.

They are found in dry areas and grasslands, open desert, steppes, subtropical scrub forest, semi desert and rocky areas, they avoid mountainous regions. They are crepuscular in nature, and primarily use their strong sense of smell for hunting, possessing weak eyesight. They have a limited vocalisation range, emitting alarm cries, grunts, and submissive shrieks. When threatened, they can erect their fur and often stand on their hind legs and hiss; when pushed, they will emit a noxious odour from their anal glands. They were once sought after for their fur, and Kabul shopkeepers used to keep them to exterminate rodents. They are currently considered Vulnerable due to habitat and prey depletion.

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The file and the rest of the totem dictionary can be found here!

Long-tailed Weasels are obligate carnivores (eat meat exclusively), preying largely on smaller rodents but also take rabbits, chipmunks and birds – including poultry.  They take down prey several times their size and occasionally go on killing sprees triggered by the smell of blood.

Long-tailed Weasel, summer molt

Their long black tipped tail, slender bodies and darker brown coloration above with creamy white ventral parts are identifying features.  The very similar Short-tailed Weasel is smaller and has whiter feet. 

In this case the prey is another weasel

While driving the loop road at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge this weasel ran in front of us carrying another weasel that it had apparently killed.  Weasels are cannibalistic at times and I’m relatively certain that this kill was destined as a meal rather than the kill being made simply out of aggression because the winning weasel was very reluctant to abandon its prize even with us very close.  It took a great effort for the weasel to carry its long-bodied kin through the grasses and reeds and it simply would not abandon it.

Hopping with it’s prey

Here you can get a feel for how difficult it was to drag the long body through all the obstructions so most of the time it would hop forward, one jump at a time, presumably with its burrow as a goal. 

Long-tailed Weasel, winter molt

As winter approaches, northern weasels molt to white (while retaining the black tipped tail) - the advantage of this is obvious.  Interestingly, many weasels living in the southern part of their range do not turn white.  This color change is genetically determined since northern weasels captured and taken south still turn white in winter while southern weasels transported north remain brown. 

Winter molt

Many call white Long-tailed Weasels in winter “ermines” but this is technically incorrect.  Only the Short-tailed Weasel is correctly called the ermine. 

Weasel with a vole it has killed

It’s fascinating to watch these efficient killers hunt.  I observed this weasel hunting in front of a Phragmites stand and was transfixed by its sinuous and seemingly effortless movement over rocks and other obstacles.  It had this vole in its jaws in an instant with what seemed like no real effort expended.  I was very impressed with its prowess.

 Weasel with the same vole

After capturing and killing the vole it would stop and look at me then take a few bounding jumps and then stop and look at me again.  It soon disappeared in the grasses with its prize.  I had a very difficult time getting any clear shots of it through all the vegetation.

I’ve always been fascinated with the entire Mustelid family – weasels, Badgers, Martens, otters, skunks, Fishers, mink, ferrets and Wolverines but I’ve had very little luck photographing them.  Hopefully, that will soon change.

Ron 

ACEO - The Murder of Crow

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ACEO European Badger

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ACEO The Golden Fox

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So why ACEOs?

I am not as productive as I would like to be, so I thought regularly working on smaller portraits would help me build up my confidence and skill. They are also really fun to draw!

Actually, that musty, not to say mephitic, miasma is wafting your way courtesy of a mustelid. So what’s a mustelid? Is it a kind of worm or mollusc? Perhaps a plant, like a mustard green? No, it’s closer to a mus musculus, but longer and larger. If your kind of vermin is ermine, or if you like to think of mink, you’re on your way to the source of the stink.

Yes, the mustelids are a family of carnivorous critters (in Latin the Mustelidae) with long bodies, short legs, fur – often quite luxuriant – and musk glands. The must in this word is not related to the musk gland, nor to the word musty; rather, it’s from mustela, Latin for “weasel”. And along with the weasel you have the ferret, the otter, the badger, the ermine, the stoat, the mink, and the wolverine… and, until recently reclassified, the skunk (now reclassified, fittingly, as Mephitidae).

The elid gives the word a fairly good biological – specifically taxonomical – flavour; one thinks quickly of annelids, for instance. But actually the morpheme boundary is at id, and there are plenty more taxonomic words included by that: hominid would be closest to home. The must is as down to earth in taste as the id is scientific; one may think of freshly crushed grapes, or imperatives, or some longer words: you must muster the mastery to remove the mustard from your mustache. In the middle of all this you may also see tel, which may seem delicate or may have the telling air of a report. Looking at the meeting of these two opposite ends with the telling middle, you may call it dualism, but with armed scent glands, I call’t duelism.

Thanks to Elaine Phillips for suggesting mustelid.

Earlier this week, I spotted this large weasel-like creature at dawn along the rocky shore of the salt marsh.  Its brown fur blended in well with its surroundings.  It stood very still when it first noticed me, then moved slowly among the rocks.  Once it was on the grass it ran quickly away. 

A sign in the marsh reveals that otters have been spotted here. Otters feed primarily on fish which would explain its proximity to the shore.  Could this be an otter? 

I managed to get closer to this animal than these photographs reveal, but unfortunately, none of those images turned out well.  What I did observe at close range was its large fluffy tail.  It was covered with black hairs, while its body was medium brown.  I don’t recall its tail being as tapered as that of otters.  Also, its eyes were more closely set than those wide set ones typical of otters. 

So I’m wondering… could it be a fisher?  They’re usually crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk).  Their diet consists of snowshoe hares and porcupines (both plentiful in this marsh).  The fisher population in Nova Scotia is scattered and low. 

What do you think this animal might be?  [Below I've attempted to sharpen a blurred close-up image of the animal.]

In Nova Scotia, the mustelid or weasel family consists of fishers, martens, short-tailed weasels (ermine), mink, river otters and striped skunks.

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Six birds (2 robins, 3 RW blackbirds, and a goldfinch) perched in a small oak about 20m away, looking agitated and peering down at the ground, but not the source of the sound…Now my curiosity was really piqued, so I maneuvered for a better vantage point and was greeted by an uncommonly viewed scene of predation: a long-tailed weasel  was firmly attached to the back of a  cottontail rabbit(!), biting repeatedly at the base of the rabbit’s neck.  The rabbit was the source of the wail, and as I watched the keening soon stopped and the weasel was left with his lunch.  

This weasel was likely a male (males are larger than females and tend to go after larger prey, like rabbits), and was hunting right around the time that weasels have young.  Distinguishing long-tailed weasels from short-tailed weasels can be difficult, as the male short-tails overlap in size with the female long-tails, but given the prey choice of this weasel I am fairly confident that it was a long-tailed weasel.  

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This joins several other predation events I feel lucky to have witnessed here in Sapsucker Woods–several others involved frogs or turtles being carried off by crows (in one instance a chipmunk ate a green frog!), Cooper’s Hawks and Red-tails feeding on birds or small mammals, and the ubiquitous fish/frog foraging of the great blue herons and belted kingfishers.  But this was my first mammal-on-mammal predation in Sapsucker Woods (not counting the trespassing deer-hunters this past winter), and it was pretty spectacular!  Any predation happening in your backyards?