literature for the long-tailed weasel. Seton (1929 (2):625) quotes
William M. Graffius of Pennsylvania as having seen a weasel closely
pursue a red squirrel nearly to the topmost branch of a large hemlock.
When the squirrel loosed its hold and dropped into a stream, the weasel
descended to the ground and caught and killed the squirrel when it
emerged from the water. Pearce (1937:483), in central New York State,
on July 29, 1931, watched a weasel chase a chipmunk up a black cherry
tree ten inches in diameter, and noted that the first rush carried the
weasel "straight up the trunk for approximately 10 feet, where it
hesitated momentarily before continuing. Then, instead of climbing
vertically, it made progress by traveling in short ascending spirals
around the trunk, scarcely making 3 feet in height for each circuit of
the tree. Upon reaching the limb by which the chipmunk escaped, the
weasel followed out along this in the same spiral manner. This limb had
a diameter of about 4 inches at its base and extended upward at an
angle of perhaps 20 degrees above the horizontal . . . it made its way
head first almost down to the ground, using the same spiral mode of
progress, but at a leisurely pace. . . . While traveling down the side
limb it appeared practically to wrap its sinuous body around the limb."
A male long-tailed weasel, from Colorado, which I kept captive was
often fed freshly killed mice. These I thrust through one of the small
openings in the wire mesh. The weasel quickly learned to seize any part
of a mouse thus introduced and his tugging aided in getting the mouse
into the cage. Occasionally a mouse too large to be got through the
mesh had to be withdrawn. In such an instance, if the weasel had
already had hold of the mouse, he would screech frightfully. I have
heard no other vocal sounds from a weasel except a kind of purring.
The sense of smell apparently is well developed; at any rate it is keen
enough to allow the weasel to follow the trail of an intended victim by
the scent left by the latter. Murie's (1935:321-322) account, for
example, of a weasel pursuing a snowshoe rabbit gives clear evidence
that the weasel relied on scent in following the rabbit.
A captive male weasel obtained at Gainesville, Florida, stamped his
hind feet when annoyed (Moore, 1945:259).
A male from Colorado that I kept for months in a cage at Lafayette,
California, was several times found in a sleep so deep that he was
awakened with difficulty. Seton (1929 (2):629-630) writes: "In my small
menagerie, I have had half-a-dozen Weasels of the New York species.
Their sleeping dens are arranged so as to be easily and silently
opened. Several times I have lifted the lid to find the weasel in a
deep sleep--a sleep so profound that I had to poke him vigorously with
a stick before he awoke, looked up, and rushed forth with a little puff
of wrath, and a little puff of smell."
Feces and urine were ordinarily deposited in one particular place by
each of the captive weasels that I have observed. Hamilton (1933:294)
records that a large male _M. f. noveboracensis_, in a week, averaged
10 evacuations every twenty-four hours, that urination immediately
precedes defecation, and describes the feces as black or brown, long
and narrow and often spiral-shaped owing "to the matted fur of some
rodent that had been eaten." Quick (1944:77) writes, concerning four
winter dens in Michigan, that "The latrines of weasels were in the
entries of used dens and scats could be collected there by the
handful." Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941:116) in the spring of
1939 at Ames, Iowa, gathered scats "from latrines found at the
entrances of burrows and from latrine chambers found within burrows."
Scats were found by them in the linings of some nests.
Courage of a high order might be credited to the long-tailed weasel
because individuals have attacked animals much larger than the weasels.
Actually, however, in few if any of these instances was the motive for
attack known. That a hawk was attacked is suggested by Soper's
(1919:45) account of _Mustela frenata noveboracensis_ wherein he
repeats a story told to him of a hawk observed in unsteady flight, and
obviously in distress, which when it plummeted to earth was with a
weasel which escaped from the observer. Charles Tatham, Jr., of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to Seton (1929 (2): 630, 631)
observed one that attacked his dog.
Persons and long-tailed weasels have figured in some rather strange
encounters. For example, Oehler (1944:198) recounts that in the autumn
of 1940 at Cincinnati, Ohio, an animal, mistakenly thought to be a
chipmunk, was seen to dash into a hollow log whereupon pounding on the
log brought out the weasel which bit and clung to the hand of one man
whose companion was bitten when he attempted to free the man that was
bitten first.
Seton (1929 (2): 631) writes that on the night of September 5, 1897, on
Roosevelt's old ranch, near Medora, North Dakota, a man turned over his
saddle (which was lying on the ground) to dislodge what was thought to
be a pack-rat. The animal was a long-tailed weasel which attacked him.
It ran up his legs a number of times aiming at his throat before being
killed by a dog.
Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) wrote: "August 20, 1919.--A _longicauda_
in the Insectary ran at me this morning apparently with a view to
intimidating. It uttered a shrill cry while making the attack, but
retreated after advancing within two feet." The same authors (_op.
cit._: 147) further write that a "Long-tailed Weasel was caught in a
trap set for gophers, and, on being released by Miss M. Criddle, at
once turned upon its liberator and bit savagely at her boot. It then
moved a short distance away to a tub of water, where it drank
thirstily, merely glancing at the observer from time to time while
doing so, and then ran off out of sight.
"Mr. T. Criddle records a similar experience. After liberating a large
weasel from a trap, it immediately rushed at him and persisted in its
attack with such ferocity that it was three times picked up and thrown,
on each occasion to a greater distance, before it finally abandoned its
offensive.
"We have no record of a weasel making an unprovoked attack upon
anyone."
Wight (1932: 164) in Michigan, detected a weasel attacking a hen. The
weasel fled at Wight's approach but returned and attacked him several
times. Finally the weasel went around Wight to reach the hen. In
Wight's words "There was no evidence of infuriation, but rather a well
directed offense at the one object, regardless of its size, which stood
between the weasel and an opportunity to satisfy its desire to kill,
which was probably based upon the uncontrollable urge of hunger pangs."
Weasels of each of the three North American species have been
successfully kept in captivity. A type of cage satisfactory for keeping
the animals in the laboratory is described by Bissonnette and Bailey
(1940:761-763). Some of the captives used their teeth to break glass
water-containers and to gnaw slivers of wood from the cages. Ingested
slivers of wood and bits of broken glass caused the deaths of some of
the captives. Weasels kept by me all were of the species _Mustela
frenata_. They thrived on a meat diet but I was always careful to give
them, every few days, if not each day, some small rodents entire,
thinking that the bits of bone and fur ingested might, in some way
unknown to me, keep the digestive tract in better condition than would
flesh devoid of hair and bone.
Three young weasels approximately the size of mice, in the Okefinokee
Swamp of Georgia, were obtained by a hunter who, according to Harper
(1927:303), raised them by feeding "milk for a few days, and then fresh
meat." Litters of young born in captivity have been successfully raised
by the mothers (Hamilton, 1933) and success in getting the animals to
breed in captivity and to rear their young is recorded by Wright
(1948A). He has found, however, that the majority of his captive adult
males show no interest in mating when placed with females in heat. He,
therefore, uses only selected males and when a female in heat is to be
bred, he places one of his responsive males with her one day, another
of his responsive males with her the second day and thus alternates a
couple of males for three or four days. Even so, slightly fewer than
half of the females which were thus bred produced young.
A weasel in the white winter coat was used by Audubon and Bachman
(1856:177, Quarto edit.) to drive rabbits out of their burrows in the
same fashion that ferrets commonly are used. Although these naturalists
refer to their animal as an ermine it probably was _Mustela frenata
noveboracensis_, the long-tailed weasel. The animal's teeth (probably
canines) were blunted and a long cord tied on its neck. With the aid of
this weasel 12 rabbits were caught in one morning and more than 50 in
four weeks.
Enemies
Little is recorded concerning enemies of weasels and it may be that
other vertebrates are not an important factor in removing the annual
increase. Errington (1935:195-198), in Iowa, found four, putrid
weasels about dens of red foxes, _Vulpes fulvus_. No remains of weasels
were found in the feces of the foxes and it appears that the foxes do
not eat the weasels. The label on an adult female specimen of _M. f.
spadix_ from Boone County, Iowa, bears the date May 10, 1938, and the
annotation, by T. G. Scott, "fox-killed." Bailey (1931:328) recounts
that "Weller saw a coyote carrying one in its mouth" at an elevation of
11,500 feet in the Pecos Mountains of New Mexico. The type specimen, a
young female, of _M. f. peninsulae_ from Hudsons, Florida, according to
Rhoads (1894:155) ". . . was caught in the woods by a cat." Barber and
Cockerell (1898:189) mention one that was killed by a dog in Mesilla
Park, New Mexico. Moore (1945:258) records the death of a weasel in
Florida. Circumstantial evidence indicated that it was killed by the
bite of a water moccasin. In the Biological Surveys Collection of
mammals in the United States National Museum, the label with the skull
of an adult male weasel, No. 160663, from Banning, California, carries
the information that the skull was taken from the stomach of a
_Crotalus_ (rattlesnake).
In reporting on a study of owl predation in Delaware County,
Pennsylvania, Pearson and Pearson (1947:143) mention that "weasels are
found throughout the county but . . . were never eaten by the owls."
The Uinta spermophile at some places and times probably is a prey
sought by the long-tailed weasel but Warren (1924:265) records
_Citellus armatus_ repeatedly chasing weasels in August, at Camp
Roosevelt, Yellowstone National Park, and how the ground squirrels at
one time ignored the weasel even when it came within a few inches of a
squirrel.
Warren (1932:71), on August 2, 1931, at Grand Mesa, Colorado, obtained
a large male weasel with two porcupine quills in it; one was near the
mouth and another "in the skull." Osgood (1935:156) writes that near
Rutland, Vermont, a male weasel "taken in April, was heavily
parasitized and had several short porcupine quills embedded in its
neck, head, and shoulders." The remainder of Osgood's account implies
that the weasel may have turned to porcupine because the normal food
for weasels was scarce at the time. Porcupine quills, then, are a
hazard for weasels although it is unlikely that the porcupine is ever
to be classed as an enemy of the weasel.
An accident of another sort, which must at the very least have been
annoying to the weasel that suffered it, was recorded by Soper
(1921:37). The animal had a stick lodged crosswise between the fourth
upper premolar teeth.
The recorded actions of several kinds of animals which are too small to
be dangerous to the weasel suggest that they recognize that the weasel
is a danger to them. Borell and Ellis (1934:21) mention that a weasel
in Nevada caused a great disturbance among the chipmunks. Long
(1938:250) heard pikas give evidence of terror by a peculiar cry when a
weasel was in a rock slide occupied by the pikas. Seton (1929 (2):629)
writes "On June 14, 1915, as I prowled around the south side of the
lake on my homeland at Greenwich, Conn., my attention was called to a
pair of song sparrows and a male towhee that were noisily mobbing a
Weasel, twittering around and darting at him, as though they knew full
well his evil ways. The weasel paid little heed, but soon dived from
sight in a stone wall."
No account has been found of an American weasel or ermine rolling,
tumbling and frolicking in a manner that aroused the curiosity of birds
to a degree which permitted the weasel to come within leaping distance
of the birds. Accounts of such behavior are on record for the English
stoat (ermine).
Food and Hunting
Weasels are active both in the daytime and at night. Whether the time
of activity varies with the season, with the locality, with the sex or
with other conditions, I do not know. Adult, live, free-living,
actively moving weasels that I recall having seen all were observed in
the daytime: two were in Alameda County, California, two were in White
Pine County, Nevada, one was in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, and one
was in Laramie County, Wyoming. I recall ten adults, from the same
three states, and one from Washington State, that got into my traps;
two of these certainly got in the traps in the night; one certainly got
in the trap in the daytime; the other eight were found in traps which
may have caught the weasels either in the night or in the daytime.
Soper (1946:136) in speaking of _M. f. longicauda_ north of the
International Boundary in Canada remarks that it has the "habit to some
extent of hunting at all times of day." Criddle and Criddle (1925:144)
in writing of _Mustela frenata longicauda_ in Manitoba record that "The
shrill cry of a rabbit [_Lepus americanus_] in the dark is nearly
always due to the weasel's attack. Indeed, we have often watched the
latter at work during the twilight hours. First would come the almost
noiseless run of the small rabbit with its characteristic dodging and
this would be followed by the appearance of the agile foe which, at
times, would leap high over obstacles and at others move swiftly
beneath them. Then there would follow intermittent cries of the rabbit
as the weasel secured a temporary hold of its quarry, for be it noted
that this hunter apparently bites anywhere to begin with and it is
probable that the blood made to flow acts as an aid to tracking as well
as weakening the prey. Several similar close encounters might occur
before the rabbit would be finally overcome, but weasels are very
persistent when they once get into contact with their victims and it is
therefore very seldom that the latter escape. In killing, they either
penetrate the brain with their teeth, or dislodge the vertebrae behind
the head." These and more than two score other observations which
record the time when weasels were seen make it clear that some were
active at night and that some were active in the daytime.
As to the routes traveled while the weasels are hunting, Quick
(1944:77) says of four individuals that he studied in Washtenaw County,
Michigan: "The weasels appeared to prefer hunting certain coverts with
noticeable regularity, but rarely cruised the same area on two
consecutive nights."
The killing technique of fifteen captive _Mustela frenata
noveboracensis_ was studied by Glover (1943A). For the weasels he
released 19 mice, 3 brown rats, 6 cottontails and 4 ring-necked
pheasants. Most of the mice were killed by a bite on the back of the
head, with the body and legs of the weasel hugging the back of the
victim. "The weasel shoved the prey in close to the stomach with the
hind legs, and the kill was made in a reclining semi-curled-up
position." On each of the rats (_Rattus_) an initial grip was secured
at the base of the ear. When the rat rested, a new hold was taken by
the weasel. Finally the weasel secured a hold at the base of the skull
and near the ear, and a light crushing sound followed. Four of the six
cottontails were killed by bites on top of the head and ear; two
cottontails succumbed from neck wounds. In three instances, neither of
two weasels could be induced to make a determined attack on the
cottontails or to kill them. At times the cottontails proved to be able
opponents for weasels by striking out with their front feet and by
kicking with their strong hind legs. In killing the pheasants the teeth
of the upper jaw of the weasel pierced the top of the braincase and the
teeth of the lower jaw entered the region of the auditory process. The
forelegs hugged the neck of the pheasant, the body of the weasel was
extended in a riding position on the back of the bird and no amount of
kicking or rolling dislodged the weasel.
Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941) describe a cottontail cached by
a weasel as having the muscles of the neck severed from the region
behind the right mastoid process and noted "that hemorrhage in the
region of the right jugular vein had occurred."
Concerning the methods of killing mammals smaller than cottontails, the
accounts by Nichols and Nichols (1935:297-299) and that by Svihla
(1931) corroborate Glover's (1943A) account, as do also the accounts of
Miller (1931B:164) and Moore (1945:257). The latter says that his
captive male, from Gainesville, Florida, customarily bit its rodent
prey at the base of the skull and used the feet to manipulate the live
prey. Miller (_loc. cit._) emphasized that his male weasel (_M. f.
longicauda_) grasped where it could, used its snakelike body to coil
over the prey and shifted the grip of its teeth to the nape of the neck
or back of the skull. The captives that I have had [one from Salt Lake
City, Utah; three from Contra Costa County, California; and the same
individual reported upon by Miller (1931:150)] customarily employed the
techniques of killing small rodents that were described by Glover and
Miller (_loc. cit._).
Allen (1938:225-229) experimented with the ability of four different
males of _M. f. noveboracensis_ from Michigan to kill adult
cottontails. The method used was to place the weasel in a cage of
quarter-inch hardware cloth approximately three feet long, two feet
wide, and two feet high. The bottom of the box was covered with several
inches of straw. One cottontail was offered to each weasel. In two
instances the weasel attacked and bit the cottontail, was struck by the
hind feet of the cottontail, retired from the attack and died a few
hours later as a result of the blows of the cottontail's hind feet. In
the other two instances the weasel rendered the cottontail helpless by
severing the neck muscles from the skull. Subsequently an incision made
by the weasel, in each of the two instances gave access to blood on
which the weasel fed until it was full, in one instance by licking
"blood as a cat laps milk." One rabbit was subdued in 10 minutes and
the other in 15 minutes. Allen (_op. cit._) points out that cottontails
form a considerable portion of the weasel's food and thinks that they
are killed in burrows more easily than they were in the cage.
In writing of the three species of weasels, including _Mustela
frenata_, found at Treesbank and vicinity, Manitoba, Norman Criddle and
Stuart Criddle (1925:143, 144), in my opinion, correctly explain the
killing of more prey than weasels need. "The fact that weasels
frequently kill many more animals than they require for immediate use
has been universally interpreted as a lust for killing--a supposition
which we believe to be quite erroneous. It is true that weasels often
kill more than they need, but the surplus is not necessarily wasted
because the animals always store it for future use, in much the same
way as do badgers, minks or skunks, and with the same object in view as
squirrels have in gathering nuts. We have observed many such stores,
but as far as our observations go, the habit of killing in excess
occurs much more prominently in the late summer and autumn months than
in the spring. Indeed, we have no records of excessive spring slaughter
and this indicates that the supposedly blood-thirsty habit of weasels
is no more a lust for killing than is the woodsman's foresight in
providing his larder with meat for the winter months. It should be
noted in this connection that members of the weasel family, when
undisturbed, do not leave their victims scattered about, but carefully
store them away, and in many instances the bodies are buried with earth
or taken under ground to preserve them. We suspect that this instinct
for preserving food for future use accounts for most of the excessive
killing by carnivorous animals instead of this latter indicating an
aimless desire for slaughter which would unnecessarily deplete the food
supply of the future. This instinct, however, does not seem to be as
definite as that of some rodents, and there is no doubt that much of
the stored meat decays before it can be utilized."
Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) note that a weasel in the vicinity of
Treesbank was carrying a rat [_Rattus_] and that "Two small punctures
in the throat were the only evidence of the manner in which its death
had been brought about."
Considerable information has been recorded concerning the food of
_Mustela frenata_ and a little information is on record as to kinds of
foods not taken that could have been taken. For example, Ingles
(1939:253, 254) on May 14, 1938, near Shasta City, California, noted
that nestlings of russet-backed thrushes were ignored by an adult
weasel and four young weasels which were feeding instead on meadow mice
and a mole. Howard (1935:322, 323) records that a weasel in Michigan
which carried bits of meat from beef bones on a porch ignored a red
squirrel which drew on the same food supply but which retreated to the
end of the porch when the weasel appeared. Quick (1944) records that in
the winter of 1940 on a 640 acre area in Washtenaw County, Michigan,
four resident weasels did not kill any of the 10 rabbits or several
pheasants but subsisted on smaller animals. Glover (1943A) thought that
_M. frenata_ kills only a few adult cottontails in the wild. To judge
from these observations, _M. frenata_ chooses small mammals as prey in
greater measure than it does birds or larger mammals.
Records of prey taken, attacked or pursued by _Mustela frenata_ include
the following:
Broad-footed mole (_Scapanus latimanus_).--One was fed on by an adult
_M. frenata_ and four young, on May 14, 1939, "near Shasta City,"
California (Ingles, 1939:253, 254).
Dusky shrew (_Sorex cinereus_).--A female weasel, at Majestic, Long
Island, N. Y., was shot when carrying a _Sorex cinereus_ that had a
small hole in the top of its head (Nichols and Nichols, 1935:297-299).
Big short-tailed shrew (_Blarina brevicauda_).--One was taken from the
stomach of a weasel (Hamilton, 1928:249).
Townsend ground squirrel (_Citellus townsendii_).--Alcorn saw a weasel
five miles west of Fallon, Nevada, carrying a squirrel (Hall,
1946:192).
Richardson ground squirrel (_Citellus richardsonii_).--The attempted
capture of one of these squirrels in Saskatchewan is recorded by Seton
(1929 (2):625).
Belding ground squirrel (_Citellus beldingi_).--Grinnell, Dixon and
Linsdale (1937:233) recount that at Tuolumne Meadows, California, a
weasel killed a ground squirrel of this species.
Thirteen-lined ground squirrel (_Citellus
tridecemlineatus_).--Errington (1936:406, 407) found a den in Palo Alto
County, Iowa, on June 22, 1934, where he collected 32 fecal pellets.
Sixteen samples contained thirteen-lined ground squirrels, 9 contained
rabbits, 9 contained mice (7 _Microtus_, 1 _Peromyscus_ and 1
unidentified); red-winged blackbirds and unidentified fringillids were
represented as also were ground beetles, grasshoppers and other
insects. One red-winged blackbird lay near the entrance of the den.
Franklin ground squirrel (_Citellus franklinii_).--Sowls (1948:126)
records that at Delta, Manitoba, a weasel was observed killing one of
these squirrels and that "the weasel had taken the squirrel from its
hibernating burrow as evidenced by tracks in the snow." On July 19,
1917, in the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba, T. Criddle saw a weasel
attacking one of these ground squirrels which was in mortal terror and
squeaking continuously. Eventually the squirrel was thrown on its back
"and would have been speedily killed but for an interruption" (Criddle
and Criddle, 1925:146).