Weasel
Weasels /ˈwiːzəlz/ are mammals of the genus Mustela of the
family Mustelidae. The genus Mustela includes the least
weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets, and European mink. Members
of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender
bodies and short legs. The family Mustelidae, or mustelids
(which also includes badgers, otters, and wolverines), is often
referred to as the "weasel family". 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 (63⁄4 to
81⁄2 in),[3] females being smaller than the males, and usually
have red or brown upper coats and white bellies; some
populations of some species moult to a wholly white coat in
winter. They have long, slender bodies, which enable them to
follow their prey into burrows. Their tails may be from 34 to
52 mm (11⁄4 to 2 in) long.[3]
Weasels feed on small mammals and have from time to time
been considered vermin because some species took poultry
from farms or rabbits from commercial warrens. They do, on
the other hand, eat large numbers of rodents. 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). This usage is retained in British English,
where the name is also extended to cover several other small
species of the genus. However, in technical discourse and in
American usage, the term "weasel" can refer to any member of
the genus, the genus as a whole, and even to members of the
related genus Neogale. Of the 16 extant species currently
classified in the genus Mustela, 10 have "weasel" in their
common names. Among those that do not are the three species
of ermine,[* 1] the polecats, the ferret, and the European
mink.[4]: 12
Weasel
Least weasel in England
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Family:
Mustelidae
Subfamily:
Mustelinae
Genus:
Mustela
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Mustela erminea
Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Mustela aistoodonnivalis
Mustela altaica
Mustela erminea
Mustela eversmannii
Mustela furo
Mustela haidarum
Mustela itatsi
The American mink and the extinct sea mink were commonly
included in this genus as Mustela vison and Mustela macrodon,
respectively, but in 1999 they were moved to the genus
Neovison.[5] In 2021, both Neovison species, along with the
long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata), Amazon weasel (Mustela
africana) and Colombian weasel (Mustela felipei) were moved
to the genus Neogale, as the clade containing these five species
was found to be fully distinct from Mustela.[6]
Mustela kathiah
Mustela lutreola
Mustela lutreolina
Mustela nigripes
Mustela nivalis
Mustela nudipes
Mustela putorius
Taxonomy
Mustela richardsonii
The genus name Mustela comes from the Latin word for
weasel combining the words mus meaning "mouse" and telum
meaning "javelin" for its long body.[4]: 3
Mustela sibirica
Mustela strigidorsa
Mustela tonkinensis
Species
The following information is according to the Integrated
Taxonomic Information System and MammalDiversity.
Mustela range
Subgenus
Image
Scientific name
Mustela altaica
Pallas, 1811
Mustela
aistoodonnivalis
Wu & Kao, 1991
Mustela erminea
Linnaeus, 1758
Mustela haidarum
Mustela
Preble, 1898
Mustela kathiah
Hodgson, 1835
Mustela nivalis
Linnaeus, 1766
Mustela
richardsonii
Bonaparte, 1838
Common
name
Distribution
Mountain
weasel
Northern and Southern Asia
Missingtoothed pygmy
weasel
Shaanxi and Sichuan, China
Stoat,
Beringian
ermine,
Eurasian
ermine, or
short-tailed
weasel
Europe and Northern Asia
Arctic Canada and Alaska (United
States)
Southern Asia (non-native)
New Zealand (non-native)
Haida ermine
Haida Gwaii (British Columbia,
Canada) and Alexander
Archipelago (Alaska, United
States)
Yellow-bellied
weasel
Southern Asia
Least weasel
Europe, North Africa and Northern
Asia
North America
Southern Asia (non-native)
New Zealand (non-native)
American
ermine
Most of North America south of
Alaska and the Arctic Circle;
eastern Nunavut and Baffin Island
Japanese
weasel
Japan and formerly Sakhalin
Island, Russia
European
mink
Europe
Lutreola
Mustela itatsi
Temminck, 1844
Mustela lutreola
(Linnaeus, 1761)
Mustela lutreolina
Robinson and
Indonesian
mountain
Southeastern Asia
Thomas, 1917
weasel
Mustela nudipes
Malayan
weasel
Southeastern Asia
Siberian
weasel
Europe and Northern Asia
Southern Asia
Back-striped
weasel
Southern Asia
Steppe
polecat
Southeast Europe and Northern
Asia
Southern Asia
Desmarest, 1822
Mustela sibirica
Pallas, 1773
Mustela strigidorsa
Gray, 1855
Mustela
eversmanii (Lesson,
1827)
Domestic
Mustela furo
Linnaeus, 1758
Domestic
ferret
Worldwide (domesticated);
New Zealand (non-native)
European
polecat
Europe, North Africa and Northern
Asia
Black-footed
ferret
North America
Putorius
Mustela putorius
Linnaeus, 1758
Mustela nigripes
(Audubon and
Bachman, 1851)
1 Europe and Northern Asia division excludes China.
Cultural meanings
Weasels have been assigned a variety of cultural meanings.
In Greek culture, a weasel near one's house is a sign of bad luck, even evil, "especially if there is in the
household a girl about to be married", since the animal (based on its Greek etymology) was thought to be
an unhappy bride who was transformed into a weasel[7] and consequently delights in destroying wedding
dresses.[8] In Macedonia, however, weasels are generally seen as an omen of good fortune.[7][8]
In early-modern Mecklenburg, Germany, amulets from weasels were deemed to have strong magic; the
period between 15 August and 8 September was specifically designated for the killing of weasels.[9]: 255
In Montagne Noire (France), Ruthenia, and the early medieval culture of the Wends, weasels were not
meant to be killed.[9]
According to Daniel Defoe also, meeting a weasel is a bad omen.[10] In English-speaking areas, weasel
can be an insult, noun or verb, for someone regarded as sneaky, conniving or untrustworthy. Similarly,
"weasel words" is a critical term for words or phrasing that are vague, misleading or equivocal.
Japanese superstitions
In Japan, weasels (鼬、鼬鼠, itachi) were seen as yōkai (causing strange
occurrences). According to the encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue from the
Edo period, a pack of weasels would cause conflagrations, and the cry of
a weasel was considered a harbinger of misfortune. In the Niigata
Prefecture, the sound of a pack of weasels making a rustle resembled six
people hulling rice, so was called the "weasel's six-person mortar", and it
was an omen for one's home to decline or flourish. It is said that when
people chase after this sound, the sound stops.[11]
They are also said to shapeshift like the fox (kitsune) or tanuki, and the
nyūdō-bōzu told about in legends in the Tōhoku region and the Chūbu
region are considered weasels in disguise, and they are also said to
shapeshift into ōnyūdō and little monks.[11]
"Ten" from the Gazu Hyakki
Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama
In the collection of depictions Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama,
they were depicted under the title 鼬, but they were read not as "itachi",
but rather as "ten",[12] and "ten" were considered to be weasels that have
reached one hundred years of age and became yōkai that possessed
supernatural powers.[13] Another theory is that when weasels reach
several hundred years of age, they become mujina (Japanese
badgers).[14]
In Japanese, weasels are called iizuna or izuna (飯綱) and in the Tōhoku
Japanese weasel
Region and Shinshu, it was believed that there were families that were
able to use a certain practice to freely use kudagitsune as iizuna-tsukai or
kitsune-mochi. It is said that Mount Iizuna, from the Nagano Prefecture, got its name due to how the gods
gave people mastery of this technique from there.[15]
According to the folklorist Mutō Tetsujō, "They are called izuna in the Senboku District,[* 2] Akita
Prefecture, and there are also the ichiko (itako) that use them."[16] Also, in the Kitaakita District, they are
called mōsuke (猛助), and they are feared as yōkai even more than foxes (kitsune).[16]
In the Ainu language, ermines are called upas-čironnup or sáčiri, but since least weasels are also called
sáčiri, Mashio Chiri surmised that the honorary title poy-sáčiri-kamuy (where poy means "small") refers
to least weasels.[17]
Kamaitachi
Kamaitachi is a phenomenon wherein one who is idle is suddenly injured as if his or her skin were cut by
a scythe. In the past, this was thought to be "the deed of an invisible yōkai weasel". An alternate theory,
asserts that kamaitachi is derived from kamae Tachi (構え太刀, "stance sword"), so were not originally
related to weasels at all.[18]
See also
Mammals portal
Notes
1. These three species are Mustela erminea, (the Eurasian ermine or stoat); M. haidarum, (the
Haida ermine); and M. richardsonii, (the American ermine).
2. However, in the Senboku District, especially in Obonai village (生保内村), they are called
okojo.[16]
References
1. Shorter Oxford English dictionary. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2007. p. 3804.
ISBN 978-0199206872.
2. Valkenburgh, Blaire Van; Wayne, Robert K. (9 November 2010). "Carnivores" (https://doi.or
g/10.1016%2Fj.cub.2010.09.013). Current Biology. 20 (21): R915 – R919.
Bibcode:2010CBio...20.R915V (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010CBio...20.R915V).
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.09.013 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.cub.2010.09.013). ISSN 09609822 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0960-9822). PMID 21056828 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/21056828). S2CID 235312150 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:235312
150).
3. "The Weasel" (http://www.mammal.org.uk/species-hub/full-species-hub/full-species-hub-list/
species-weasel/). The Mammal Society. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
4. King, Carolyn M.; Powell, Roger A. (2006). The Natural History of Weasels and Stoats:
Ecology, Behavior, and Management (https://books.google.com/books?id=5ae9c7GO_cUC).
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-804113-9.
5. Abramov, A.V. 1999. A taxonomic review of the genus Mustela (Mammalia, Carnivora).
Zoosystematica Rossica, 8(2): 357-364
6. Patterson, Bruce D.; Ramírez-Chaves, Héctor E.; Vilela, Júlio F.; Soares, André E. R.;
Grewe, Felix (2021). "On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora:
Mustelidae)" (https://doi.org/10.52547%2FJAD.2021.3.2.1). Journal of Animal Diversity. 3
(2): 1–8. doi:10.52547/JAD.2021.3.2.1 (https://doi.org/10.52547%2FJAD.2021.3.2.1).
ISSN 2676-685X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2676-685X). S2CID 236299740 (https://a
pi.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:236299740).
7. Lawson, John Cuthbert (2012). Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study
in Survivals (https://books.google.com/books?id=D6ghAB1AJR8C&pg=PA327). Cambridge
UP. pp. 327–28. ISBN 978-1-107-67703-6.
8. Abbott, George Frederick (1903). Macedonian folklore (https://archive.org/details/macedonia
nfolklo00abborich). Cambridge UP. pp. 108 (https://archive.org/details/macedonianfolklo00a
bborich/page/108)–109. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
9. Thomas, N.W. (September 1900). "Animal Superstitions and Totemism" (https://zenodo.org/r
ecord/1810352). Folk-lore. 11 (3): 228–67. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1900.9719953 (https://do
i.org/10.1080%2F0015587X.1900.9719953). JSTOR 1253113 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1
253113).
10. Hazlitt, William Carew; Brand, John (1905). Faiths and folklore: a dictionary of national
beliefs, superstitions and popular customs, past and current, with their classical and foreign
analogues, described and illustrated (https://archive.org/details/faithsandfolklo00hazlgoog).
Reeves and Turner. p. 622 (https://archive.org/details/faithsandfolklo00hazlgoog/page/n29
6). Retrieved 13 February 2012.
11. 村上健司編著 『妖怪事典』 毎日新聞社、2000年、36頁。ISBN 978-4-6203-1428-0。
12. 高田衛監修 稲田篤信・田中直日編 『鳥山石燕 画図百鬼夜行』 国書刊行会、1992年、50
頁。ISBN 978-4-336-03386-4。
13. 少年社・中村友紀夫・武田えり子編 『妖怪の本 異界の闇に蠢く百鬼夜行の伝説』 学習研究
社〈New sight mook〉、1999年、123頁。ISBN 978-4-05-602048-9。
14. 草野巧 『幻想動物事典』 新紀元社、1997年、30頁。ISBN 978-4-88317-283-2。
15. 『広辞苑 第4版』(1991年)、岩波書店「いづなつかい【飯綱使・飯縄遣】
」の項
16. 武藤, 鉄城 (1940), "秋田郡邑魚譚" (http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1461537/189), アチックミ
ユーゼアム彙報, 45: 41–42, "北秋田ではモウスケと称して狐より怖がられ、仙北地方ではイ
ヅナと称し、それを使う巫女(エチコ)もある。学名コエゾイタチを、此の付近..〔生保内村〕
では..オコジョと云ふ(田口耕之助氏)"。
17. 知里, 真志保 (Chiri, Mashiho) (30 March 1959), "アイヌ語獣名集 (On the names of the
mammals of the Ainu language)" (http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/332
44/1/7_PL150-121.pdf) (PDF), 北海道大學文學部紀要 = the Annual Reports on Cultural
Science: 141, ISSN 0437-6668 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0437-6668), archived (http
s://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/211
5/33244/1/7_PL150-121.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022
18. 人文社編集部 (2005). 諸国怪談奇談集成 江戸諸国百物語 東日本編. ものしりシリーズ. 人文
社. p. 104. ISBN 978-4-7959-1955-6.
Further reading
Nowak, Ronald M., and Ernest P. Walker. Walker's Carnivores of the World. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8018-8033-5, ISBN 0-8018-8032-7.
C. Hart Merriam, Synopsis of the Weasels of North America, Washington, Government
Printing Office, 1896 (https://archive.org/stream/synopsisofweasel00merriala/synopsisofwea
sel00merriala_djvu.txt).
Angier, Natalie (13 June 2016). "Weasels Are Built for the Hunt" (https://www.nytimes.com/2
016/06/14/science/weasels-are-built-for-the-hunt.html). The New York Times. Retrieved
15 June 2016.
External links
The dictionary definition of weasel at Wiktionary
Media related to Mustela at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Mustela at Wikispecies
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Weasel&oldid=1263682729"