Sleek, swift, and surprisingly fierce — weasels may be small, but they are among nature’s most efficient hunters. Pound for pound, weasels have a higher bite force than a lion, tiger or polar bear.
Numbered among the world’s smallest carnivores, weasels are part of the Mustelidae, or mustelids, family including badgers, polecats and wolverines, all known for punching far above their weight.
Despite their reputation as cunning tricksters in folklore, these tiny carnivores play a vital role in keeping the balance in their ecosystems. They primarily prey on small rodents, such as mice and voles, their slender bodies helping them access rodent burrows and tunnels.
Weasels need to eat a third of their own weight daily to keep up with their startling metabolism. But if they were to eat all they need at once, they would risk compromising their slim build, which would inhibit them from hunting in small burrows and tunnels. To avoid this, they typically eat around 10 small meals each day.
When food is scarce, weasels are known to take down rabbits, squirrels and other animals more than twice their size with a lethal bite. Remember — they share a family with wolverines, which are known to take on grizzly bears.
How to identify a weasel
While weasels can often be mistaken for stoats or ferrets, the trick to identify these species is their coloring. In spring and summer, their coat is a brownish-red on top with a white underbelly. In winter, their coats turn completely white, but the tip of their tail remains black. The two primary sub-species found in North America are the long- and short-tailed weasel (also known as an ermine).
The first step to identifying a weasel is looking in the right place. Weasels like staying in areas with dense cover, such as brushy areas, wooded areas and along overgrown hedges and banks.
The black-tipped tail will help you identify a weasel in any season, whether they have their brown summer coat or white winter coat.
Most US national parks will have habitats suitable for weasels to thrive. Keep a close eye on the underbrush and you might just be lucky enough to spot one.
Threats to weasels
Some conservationists are concerned that the white winter coat will at times work against them. When snow comes later in the season or is more sparse, the white coat that would otherwise help them blend into the landscape would make them starkly stand out.
Human trapping, habitat and prey loss, poisoning, competition from other species, and predation are also threats to the species survival.
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