1941, along the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park, Boyer (1943:99,
100) saw a weasel chasing a _Citellus lateralis_; three or four times
the weasel grasped the back of the neck of the squirrel which each time
threw off the weasel until the two, weasel after the squirrel, plunged
into the river. The squirrel, bleeding at the base of the skull, was
rescued and entered a hole; the weasel got out of the water and under a
rotting log. Follett (1937:365) at 2 p.m. in Plumas County, California,
saw a weasel have hold of the lower jaw of a golden-mantled ground
squirrel near its throat. Alcorn watched a weasel chase a
golden-mantled ground squirrel in Nevada (Hall, 1946:192) and Grinnell
and Dixon (1919:681) record that on August 4, 1911, near Monache
Meadows in eastern Tulare County, California, a weasel pursued,
captured and killed a golden-mantled ground squirrel.
Eastern chipmunk (_Tamias striatus_).--Pearce (1937:483) in central New
York State, on July 29, 1931, saw a chipmunk scamper up a tree pursued
by a weasel.
Chipmunk (subgenus _Neotamias_).--Stanford (1931:363) on November 11,
1931, at Fish Lake, Utah, saw a weasel pursuing a chipmunk. On August
5, 1910, "near Independence Lake," Nevada County, California, Louise
Kellogg recorded that a weasel seized and ran off with a chipmunk
(Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale, 1937:233). Allen (1938:228) observed
that a chipmunk (whether _Tamias striatus_ or _T. minimus_ not
specified) was killed in 30 seconds whereas 10 to 15 minutes were
required by the caged, male _Mustela frenata noveboracensis_ to kill a
cottontail.
Red squirrel (_Tamiasciurus_).--Seton (1929 (2):625) records the
capture of one in Pennsylvania, and Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale
(1937:232), at Cisco, California, saw one closely pursued by a weasel.
Flying squirrel (_Glaucomys_).--Burroughs (1900:77, 78) records remains
of one of these squirrels along with the remains of other animals in a
food cache of a Mustela but his account does not make clear whether
_Mustela frenata_ or _Mustela erminea_ was the species of weasel
involved.
Northern pocket gopher (_Thomomys_).--In "July, 1939, near Stillwater
[Nevada], Alcorn pursued . . . [a] weasel and caused it to drop . . .
a pocket gopher [_Thomomys bottae_] which was about two-thirds grown"
(Hall, 1946:192). Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:233) write that
"at least twice, weasels in the [Yosemite] Valley were seen carrying
pocket gophers." Relative to _Thomomys talpoides_ in the vicinity of
Treesbank, Manitoba, Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) record that on
September 11, 1918, an individual of _Mustela frenata longicauda_ took
seven pocket gophers dead. . . . It seized the rodents by the middle of
their back and held them high while carrying them away. They were
stored in a gopher burrow some two hundred yards distant. On February
17, 1921, "Came across the marks of a weasel carting some object over
the snow. An investigation revealed a recently-killed pocket gopher
with its captor still in possession." Criddle (1930:279), at Aweme,
Manitoba, "frequently observed this weasel [_M. f. longicauda_] . . .
carrying a pocket gopher to its larder, and twice it has been
encountered in mid winter with freshly killed gophers in its
possession." The evidence already presented that weasels levy heavily
on pocket gophers is strengthened by the many references in the
literature to weasels having been caught in traps set for pocket
gophers in the burrows of those rodents and by the many statements, not
quoted here, that living quarters of weasels are in burrows made
originally by pocket gophers. For example, the present writer, in an
account of the Mammals of Nevada (Hall, 1946:191, 192), has said of the
long-tailed weasel, _Mustela frenata nevadensis_, that "All the three
dens that were excavated . . . were originally burrows of pocket
gophers. . . . Although we have found weasels in many situations in
Nevada, . . . they most often were obtained from the burrows of pocket
gophers." Excluding the weasels taken by Alcorn, more specimens of the
remaining lot were caught in traps set in the burrows of pocket gophers
than by all other means combined. All of the 22 weasels taken by Alcorn
[within a radius of 10 miles of Fallon] were obtained in gopher traps.
Mexican pocket gopher (_Cratogeomys_).--At Chalchicomula, 8000 feet,
Puebla, Nelson (1918:470 and letter dated March 9, 1928) saw a weasel
fastened to a pocket gopher. Nelson obtained the pocket gopher and
found that its neck muscles were torn loose from the skull.
Grasshopper mouse (_Onychomys_).--Barber and Cockerell (1898:189) found
remains of this mouse in the stomach of a weasel at Mesilla Park, New
Mexico.
White-footed mice (_Peromyscus_).--Green (1936) saw a weasel in Gratiot
County, Michigan, in May, carrying a _Peromyscus_. Quick (1944:76), in
winter, in Michigan, found one dead, probably killed by a weasel. From
Washtenaw County, Michigan, Quick (1944:77) examined 294 scats of
free-living weasels and found _Peromyscus_ in 189 scats, _Microtus_ in
83, small birds in 20, red squirrel in 3, and hair of weasels in small
quantities (probably from the animals which deposited the scats) in 36.
He concludes (_op. cit._, 78) that the winter food was 65 to 70 per
cent _Peromyscus_, 23 to 33 per cent _Microtus_, and 2 to 7 per cent
small birds.
Wood rats (_Neotoma_).--A female long-tailed weasel weighing 250 grams
was taken one mile north of Kent, Texas, while eating a _Neotoma
albigula_ (Davis and Robertson, 1944:263). A wood rat house under
observation by Vestal (1937:364) in Contra Costa County, California,
was invaded by one weasel which ate two adult wood rats (_Neotoma
fuscipes_) and one young. In the same area he saw a weasel in a wood
rat nest some months later (Vestal, 1938:5). Three miles east of Reno,
Nevada, on May 13, 1936, W. B. Richardson watched a long-tailed weasel
carrying a half-grown round-tailed wood rat (_Neotoma lepida_) across a
rock slide (Hall, 1946, 192). Harper (1927:303) records three wood rats
[_Neotoma floridana_] and two cotton rats [_Sigmodon hispidus_] found
dead in the den of a female weasel and her three young in the
Okefinokee Swamp of Georgia. Another female and three young
approximately half grown were found in the swamp in a hollow pine log.
Contents of the den as described to Harper were nearly a peck of wood
rats, whole and in pieces; remains of several kinds of birds including
robins and quail, and a piece of joint snake (_Ophisaurus ventralis_).
Meadow mice (_Microtus_).--Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941), in
1939, at Ames, Iowa, identified "A total of 118 items . . . in 97
winter scats and 48 in the 38 spring scats." Their combined data are as
follows:
Frequency Percentage
Meadow mouse 71 42.85
Harvest mouse 36 21.75
Deer mouse 17 10.23
Mearns cottontail 14 8.42
Short-tailed shrew 9 5.42
House mouse 3 1.86
Tree sparrow 2 1.02
Grasshopper 1 .60
Shaw pocket gopher 1 .60
Least weasel 9 5.40
Unidentified material 3 1.85
Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson divide their data into two categories,
winter and spring. Items recorded in winter but not in spring are house
mouse, tree sparrow, and grasshopper. Items recorded only in spring
were pocket gopher and least weasel. The samples of cottontail and
least weasel all were from the scats of one large male weasel. Of a
total of 14 pheasants, 24 quail and 35 cottontails on the 160 acres
involved in the study only two cottontails appear to have been killed
by the weasels--really by one weasel of four which lived on the area.
Food items taken from the nests (3) and adjacent caches of food in the
dens, were as follows: meadow mouse, 30; short-tailed shrew, 4; pocket
gopher, 2; deer mouse, 2; least weasel, 1; tree sparrow, 1. The authors
remark that the abundance of several prey species does not cause the
weasels to ignore the shrews which are said to be distasteful to
carnivores.
Two horned larks, apparently killed by weasels, were found on the 160
acre area studied; the horned larks were not in caches of food, nor
were remains of horned larks found in scats.
Dearborn (1932:34, 37) for Michigan, on the basis of contents of (37?)
intestinal tracts and "feces collected partly in winter and partly in
summer" found that, by frequency of occurrence, mammals comprised 83
per cent of the food, birds 10 per cent and insects 7 per cent.
Frequency indices for the genera of mammals in percentages of food
items of all kinds were as follows: _Microtus_, 31 per cent;
_Peromyscus_, 24 per cent; _Sylvilagus_, 14 per cent; _Sorex_, 7 per
cent; _Blarina_, 5 per cent; _Scalopus_, 2 per cent.
Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), for the vicinity of Treesbank,
Manitoba, record that on October 3, 1913, a weasel was seen to take a
field mouse down a hole. They add (_op. cit._: 147) that "Once while
ploughing, we observed a Long-tailed Weasel carrying a field
mouse. . . ." Ingles (1939:253, 254), in June, 1938, near Mt. Shasta
City, California, found an adult and four young weasels which fed on
several _Microtus montanus montanus_. Green (1936) in May, in Gratiot
County, Michigan, in the vicinity of a nest in which there were four
young weasels, found "several" dead _Microtus_. Hamilton (1933:330)
records that in New York State a male weasel, on April 5, 1932, at
Ithaca, had eaten a _Microtus_ and that in May, 1927, a female weasel
was seen carrying a _Microtus_ in its mouth.
Hamilton's (1933:333) study of the contents of the digestive tracts of
bodies of weasels obtained from fur trappers and fur buyers enabled him
to publish the following "Frequency Indices of Mammal Genera in Fall
and Winter Food of 163 _Mustela noveboracensis_": _Microtus_, 33.6 per
cent; _Sylvilagus_, 17.3; mammals undetermined to genus but principally
mice, 17.1; _Peromyscus_, 11.3; _Rattus_, 9.1; _Blarina_, 5.9;
_Sciurus_, 2.7; _Tamias_, 1.0; _Condylura_, 0.8; _Ondatra_, 0.8.
Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:233, 234) quote W. Fry concerning a
weasel which reared six young at Giant Forest, California, in 1919, as
follows: "This parent weasel, after the birth of her young, remained at
the premises for a period of thirty-seven days; during which time, from
actual count, the following numbers of mammal species fell victim to
her: mice [genera not specified] 78; gophers 27; moles 2; chipmunks 34;
wood rats 3; ground squirrels 4. This is a total of 148 animals for
the . . . thirty-seven days . . . not a bird was captured during the
period."
Rats (_Rattus_).--Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), on the farm at
Treesbank, Manitoba, record a long-tailed weasel, on July 2, 1918,
running away from the farm buildings carrying a rat; July 11, 1919,
"Two _longicaudas_ . . . have been seen running off with rats on
several occasions."; July 11, 1920, "There are two large weasels about
the buildings[;]. . . . Each has been noted with rats and this
afternoon one of them was seen running into the woods carrying a rat,
followed by two excited swallows." The authors (_op. cit._:147) add "In
the fall of 1924, Mr. A. Cooper, a prominent poultryman of Treesbank,
observed a large weasel carrying a freshly killed rat which it stored
below ground and then returned towards the poultry-house, causing no
little apprehension to the owner. Within a short time, however, the
weasel reappeared with another rat which it hid as before. In this way
several rodents were accounted for during the afternoon, and Mr. Cooper
assures us that the weasel 'kept up the good work for some days'."
Hamilton (1933:330) in New York State in May, 1927, saw a male weasel
in possession of a rat.
Big jumping mouse (_Zapus major_).--In the Warner Mountains of
California, on Parker Creek, H. C. Bryant frightened a weasel that
dropped a freshly killed jumping mouse (Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale,
1937:232).
Snowshoe rabbit (_Lepus americanus_).--Adolph Murie (1935:321-322)
writes that: "Four miles north of Funkley, Minnesota, early on the
morning of November 13, 1921, . . . watched from the top of a 30-foot
spruce a weasel. .. hunting a varying hare. . . . The ground was
covered with six inches of fresh snow . . . both animals . . . [had]
their [white] winter pelage.
"My attention was first attracted to the hare as it came hopping
steadily but unhurriedly from the north. Directly in front of me, about
75 feet from the tree I had climbed, the hare crisscrossed back and
forth at various angles over an open area about 20 feet in diameter.
After producing a maze of tracks, the hare 'froze' near one edge of the
pattern. In a few minutes the weasel appeared, all his faculties
focused on the warm trail. Expertly he followed its convolutions,
passing at times within a few feet of the watching hare. Not until the
weasel had followed every turn of the trail to within three feet of its
termination did the hare skip off. It came out to the road almost
directly below me, turned at right angles northward and was soon out of
sight. At the road the weasel lost the trail, . . . and then ran
parallel with it, once more in hot pursuit.
"Ten minutes later the hare emerged from the north as before, came on
directly to the tracked-up area, and continuing its stratagem,
leisurely hopped about to leave its zigzag trail. Then it sat down
quietly to wait. . . . The weasel['s] . . . nose led him through the
network with little trouble. He was almost upon the hare before it
jumped off and followed the same path [as] . . . before. . . .
"The hare had to show his big heels [a third time] . . . as the weasel
approached him. This time the weasel failed to follow. . . . After
examining a few brush heaps he vanished into the woods behind me."
Seton (1929 (4):723, 724) writes that in December of 1886 in the
sandhills northeast of Carberry, Manitoba, he saw a weasel chasing a
snowshoe rabbit which took refuge near his feet under the sleigh and so
escaped the weasel. Thurber (1940:356) mentions a month-old varying
hare that was rescued from a weasel and of approximately the same size
as the weasel.
Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) for the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba,
record "August 21, 1921.--Heard cries of a small rabbit at dusk
to-night, which investigation showed was being attacked by a large
weasel. The rabbit was later carried to the weasel's store chamber
below ground." They record further (_op. cit._, 146, 147): "November 8,
1924.--Shot a bush rabbit and left it lying. Two hours later [it] . . .
was found to have been dragged beneath a brush pile and partly eaten.
Innumerable weasel tracks left no doubt as to the identity of the
thief." In describing a weasel that wintered in a nest in a threshing
machine, the same authors (_op. cit._:143) say that no bird remains
were found in the pile of approximately three pounds of droppings
adjacent to the nest. In a store chamber some 140 yards away from the
nest, two bush rabbits (_Lepus americanus_) had been dragged to the
entrance and numerous smaller rodents were taken below ground. The
rabbits were buried beneath the snow and eaten as necessity arose.
Narrow selectivity on the part of the weasel in choosing food is almost
always shown in instances where the food of weasels has been studied.
For example, the weasel which lived in the threshing machine ate
rodents and rabbits and not poultry although the weasel had ready
access to the poultry building. The weasel which lived in the bag of
feathers in the basement of Stuart Criddle's house ignored grouse,
approximately 20 in number, in favor of other non-avian food.
Cottontail (_Sylvilagus_).--Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941)
mention that one of 4 weasels which they studied on a 160 acre area at
Ames, Iowa, in 1939, had a cache of food in a pocket gopher burrow 10
rods distant from the weasel's den. The cache contained only two
cottontails, one partly eaten. Leopold (1937) records seeing a
_Mustela_ (probably a long-tailed weasel but possibly an ermine) kill a
third-grown cottontail by biting it at the base of the skull. Leopold
describes the blood sucking or licking, suggesting that he shared the
popular misconception that weasels suck blood. The supposition that
weasels suck blood has been refuted by many observers, for example by
Svihla (1931). My own observation of captives makes me think that
weasels do not suck blood. Seton (1929 (2):626) quotes B. H. Warren as
seeing a weasel dragging a freshly killed, still warm, rabbit that
contained nine embryos almost ready for birth. A young rabbit was seen
being carried by a weasel in Hidalgo County, Texas, in March, 1935
(Mulaik, 1938:104). An instance of a cottontail being chased in June in
South Carolina is recorded by Hamilton (1933:330). Addy (1939:372,
373), in Virginia, on August 14, 1939, shot a large weasel which was
pursuing a _Sylvilagus_ that was only a foot and a half ahead of the
weasel. The rabbit stopped when a shot was fired and permitted itself
to be stroked and petted. Tracking showed that the weasel had chased
the rabbit for a half mile. On November 20, 1942, at Lake James,
Indiana, a weasel was seen by Grosjean (1942:443) attacking a "young
rabbit" in the throat of which the weasel had made five large holes
from which there was no obvious bleeding. Seton (1929 (4):798) recounts
that in 1910 at Base Lake, Michigan, F. C. Hicks saw a cottontail with
a weasel hanging to its legs rush to the cottage. When only four feet
from Hicks the weasel loosed its hold and the cottontail escaped under
the cottage. Burroughs (1939:253) on May 14, 1939, in Saginaw County,
Michigan, records that a young cottontail weighing between 200 and 250
grams was carried from the nest and killed. Burroughs was attracted
first by the "hissing scream" of the weasel, strode toward the sound,
flushed an adult cottontail, and discovered the empty nest from which
the weasel had taken the young cottontail.
Brush rabbit (_Sylvilagus bachmani_).--Vestal (1937:364) in Contra
Costa County, California, found a brush rabbit that appeared to have
been killed by a weasel.
Reptiles.--Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:234) recount that in
July, 1889, in Wilson Canyon, near Pasadena, California, a weasel
killed a red racer by severing the backbone of the snake. In April,
1935, in Hidalgo County, Texas, a half grown bull snake (_Pituophis
sayi sayi_) was regurgitated by a young weasel. Russell (1930:504, 505)
has recorded finding in California a male weasel and a king snake
(Lampropeltis getulus boylii) three feet five inches long in mortal
combat. The weasel killed the snake but the weasel, incapacitated by
the conflict, was easily picked up by hand and was also saved as a
specimen.
Wild birds.--In the spring of 1940, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, one
bobwhite, of 10 bobwhite living on a 640 acre area, was killed by one
of four weasels that lived on the area. No other quail was killed
there. The one unfortunate bird was killed in the mouth of an abandoned
den where the quail roosted (Quick, 1944:76). A male weasel, subspecies
_M. f. effera_, was seen by Booth (1946:439) attempting to enter the
nesting hole of a pair of flickers, _Colaptes_. One song sparrow
(_Melospiza melodia_), and one slate-colored junco (_Junco hyemalis_)
were recorded by Quick (1944:76) as killed by weasel in Michigan.
Chicken (genus _Gallus_).--Quick (1944:78) writes that in one year
(1938-1939) weasels were reported to have killed 1.03 per cent of all
chickens in one township of Washtenaw County, Michigan, and that of the
total damage to all kinds of poultry, 59 per cent was done by weasels.
Weasels entered 19 per cent of the chicken coops on the study area.
Farmers killed 68 per cent of the weasels seen in barn yards. Spring
and summer were the seasons in which most of the weasels were observed
in barn yards. Internal evidence in Quick's (_op. cit._) account leads
me to suspect that some losses of poultry were charged to weasels when
_Rattus_ was actually responsible.
Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), quote a neighbor in the vicinity of
Treesbank, Manitoba, as recording that on October 29, 1917, "A weasel
last night made its way into our fowl-house, the door being
inadvertently left open. The weasel killed eleven fowl, some of which
were dragged into the yard. All the largest fowls were selected, the
pullets remaining untouched though they were in the majority. Next
night the weasel dug a hole beneath the building and killed a hen and
two cocks, returning for another during the day, making a total of
fourteen in all." Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) remark that the weasel
proved to be a large one, probably an old male. The same authors (_op.
cit._:147) record that at their farm at Treesbank, Manitoba, on January
31, 1925, "A Long-tailed Weasel killed three hens last night, and
rather severely bit a cock about the neck. This, or another weasel, had
been around the farm-yard for sometime (The specimen was a large
male). . . .
"In the fall of 1924, Mr. A. Cooper, a prominent poultryman of
Treesbank, observed a large weasel carrying a freshly killed rat which
it stored below ground and then returned towards the poultry-house,
causing no little apprehension to the owner. Within a short time,
however, the weasel reappeared with another rat which it hid as before.
In this way several rodents were accounted for during the afternoon,
and Mr. Cooper assures us that the weasel 'kept up the good work for
same days'.
"Being a farmer of many years' standing, Mr. Cooper has naturally lost
some poultry through the agency of weasels, but while he remarks that
'there are good as well as bad actors among weasels', he has the
practical good sense to recognize the value of an efficient ratter even
though it be a weasel.
"Our sister, Maida Criddle, writes under date of March 4, 1925:
"'There is another weasel (_longicauda_) in the fowl-house, a
well-behaved one this time. It came and took a piece of meat out of my
hand quite nicely, which it carried down a hole and then came and
sniffed all over my mitt to see if there was any more. I thought it had
been killed when I visited the farm buildings next day as there was a
strong smell of musk on the cat and in the fowl house, but the weasel
was there as cheeky as ever. It got hold of my skirt twice and tried to
pull me down its hole. I think it wanted the cloth for a bed, as it was
taking straw and other material down the burrow. The poultry were very
frightened at first, but they are getting used to the weasel's presence
now'."
In commenting on the economic role of the long-tailed weasel in
Manitoba, Criddle and Criddle (1925:145) write as follows: "Supply and
demand are prominent factors in governing our weasels' food habits. The
two smaller species, as we have already pointed out are so dependent
upon mice for a living that they increase or diminish with the
fluctuation of these creatures. The Long-tailed Weasel, however, is not
so easily checked by the temporary disappearance of any particular kind
of game. If mice are scarce it devotes greater attention to gophers or
bush rabbits and if these are not in sufficient numbers to satisfy its
appetite, the animal raids a poultry house as a last resource. In nine
years out of ten, this weasel will find sufficient food about the
fields and woods, but on the tenth it may be obliged to temporarily
turn to domestic animals. It is at such times that the weasel is seen
and its deeds recorded. A thousand mice may have been killed in the
meantime, but the destruction of half a dozen hens is alone used as
evidence of the weasel's economic standing.
"In the last twenty years we have permitted weasels to frequent the
farm buildings at will and the poultry house has been no exception. In
that time rats and mice suffered severely from the weasels, while the
total number of poultry taken were six. Many times that number,
however, have been killed by rats.
"When we review our experiences of the past, we are astonished to find
what few poultry have been killed by weasels. Our own losses in
forty-two years have not exceeded fifteen birds and even these were
usually eatable. There have been reports of losses from time to time
from neighbors, but on looking into details we find that there are very
few farmers who have experienced more than three separate occasions of
weasel depredation and the total loss per farmer in the last thirty
years does not, we are sure, exceed ten birds. This is surely a
remarkably small payment to weasels in general for the great good done
by them in killing rodents.