One can see the black tipped tail on this side.
It was snowing when I took this photos this morning. Those white flakes are actual snow flakes.
This animal is a long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata), which is native from southern Canada to Bolivia. It is larger than the ermine or stoat (Mustela erminea), which also turns white in winter in North America, and much larger than the least weasel (Mustela nivalis). In West Virginia, we have only least and long-tailed weasels, but other parts of North America have all three species. Least weasels and stoats are found throughout Eurasia, but the long-tailed weasel is found only in the Americas.
Only northern North American populations of long-tailed weasel turn white in winter.
This particular specimen was killed by my grandfather, who passed away in this past August. He was squirrel hunting in late October. While he was stalking a gray squirrel den tree, he happened to catch sight of a cottontail rabbit running hard and fast. The rabbit ran past him and dove into a copse of heavy brush. A few minutes later, a white thing started moving along. It was tracking the rabbit’s trail.
My grandpa had no idea what he was looking at, so he did what just about anyone from West Virginia would do if he came across an animal in the woods that he couldn’t identify.
He waited until the white thing crossed a long that the rabbit jumped over. As soon as it raised its head over the log, he blasted it with his shotgun.
He brought it home for me to identify, but I was confused as to what it really was. I didn’t know that long-tailed weasels would turn white in the winter in this part of the country.
The fur on the back is still chocolate brown.
The initial plan was to have it sent to a taxidermist, but no one got around to it.
It’s been the freezer weasel for all these years.
A close up of the head. Dollar bill for scale.
So this is the famed freezer weasel I’ve written about.
It’s taken me this long to put up on the blog, but here it is.
The snow flakes have an added effect, don’t they?
Do you think I’ll get in trouble for putting photos of my weasel on the internet?
I could make a comment about how it was much smaller than I expected, but I’ll refrain.
You sure that is not a baby Sasquatch ?
Photos were taken with the iPAD 2 you got me for Xmas.
I have a freezer star-nosed mole. Glad I’m not the only one harbouring frozen mammals.
Just so long as you don’t wind up like the British man who keeps a freezer full of roadkill, which he eats.
He’s a locavore freegan.
[…] Update: I have uploaded photos in a post of my long-tailed weasel that I mention here. GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); GA_googleAddAttr("theme_bg", "ffffff"); GA_googleAddAttr("theme_text", "333333"); GA_googleAddAttr("theme_link", "265e15"); GA_googleAddAttr("theme_border", "ededed"); GA_googleAddAttr("theme_url", "996633"); GA_googleAddAttr("LangId", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Autotag", "travel"); GA_googleAddAttr("Autotag", "science"); GA_googleAddAttr("Autotag", "entertainment"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "carnivorans"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "mustelids-3"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "wildlife"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "ermine"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "least-weasel"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "long-tailed-weasel"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "short-tailed-weasel"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "stoat"); GA_googleAddAttr("Tag", "weasel"); GA_googleFillSlot("wpcom_sharethrough"); Share this:TwitterFacebookRedditPrintDiggStumbleUponLinkedInEmailLike this:Like2 bloggers like this post. […]
I’ve only seen the local long tails during the summer so I can’t speak to whether they change for winter or not. But based on my proximity to WV, I would suspect that they undergo at least a partial change as yours seems to have done.
I just hate that “what is it, let me shoot it and kill it” mentality.
Such a shame to kill such a beautiful creature.
I once worked for an asshole who bragged about shooting a badger he saw in his field, because it “had the nerve” to stick its head out of its hole.
Later, he complained about all the ground squirrels…
Emily,
It’s usually not a good idea to defame people who recently passed away.
Especially when that person was very close to the person who wrote this blog post.
my apologies to you.
I wonder what stopped the LTW from colonising Eurasia? The stoat and weasel colonised North America with no problems. Perhaps the LTW is in fact descended from the stoat.
Here’s what I can conjecture:
The two species share a common ancestor, but one evolved in North America and the other in Eurasia. The Stoat is better adapted to living in extremely cold conditions. Northern subspecies of stoat have fur covering their pads. This fur on the feet gives the stoat some marginal advantage in northern climates, and seeing as the only way to cross from North America into Eurasia is to be able to live in a place like Beringia.
Stoats have only been able to colonize the northern tier of North America, but the long-tailed weasel has a much more southerly distribution. Their range is only as far north as southern Canada. They are almost mirror images of the bobcat and Canada lynx.
They didn’t colonize Eurasia, but they did wander down through Mexico and Central America to colonize South America.
Do they hybridize on the margins of their territories?
I don’t think so.
It is very cute for a second I thought it was your pet and I was thought “Who takes pictures of their dead animals woulsn’t they rather live ones.?” Then I read the post and understood. I used to have bugs in my room sadly now all I have is human teeth, some australian bird feathers and lots of photos.
[…] The ones in my area actually do, but the ones that Audubon was encountered in the lower part of New York State did not. […]