The pictures are not mine but come from Arkive and as they are not my images they may not be reproduced. But the site is a wonderful one and well worth several visits. Pitty I don't get paid for that shameless plug!
Weasels, Stoats and Polecat are all members of the Mustela family, along with Badgers and the American Skunk. All have anal scent glands that they use to mark their territory and each other. The American Skunk has modified glands that it uses as a defence that deodorant has no effect on, apparently. Why Americans called the skunk Polecat beats me, so if anyone does know I am interested to know.
As you can see from the picture, it looks more like a Raccoon with its mask.
The Stoat is the larger of the two common weasels and can always be identified by the black tip to the tail.
The Weasel is smaller about half the size of a Stoat, and has a tail the same colour as the main body fur.
So if I have not totally confused my American readers then I have failed in my task here.
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3 comments:
Well many years ago there was a weasel like the one in the picture here and it was called, a polecat. It is extinct here now. I did some checking on that after i looked at your pictures. I always thought it was just a skunk called that here. I learned from this, very interesting and thank you.
My curiousity led me to google it after I read the first post. I deduced that what you all call a stoat we call ermine, and I had the fortune of seeing a pair of ermine in their winter coats successfully hunting mice under a friend's shed and hiding in their woodpile a couple of years ago.
re polecats, I was only familiar with them from reading and I guess I assumed back then it was a skunk since it referred to the odor.
The pics look like ferrets and I understand from your post or googling that ferrets can interbreed with polecats.
Weasels are the same here.
We also have martens, I am not sure if they are masked-they climb trees and eat red squirrels.
Also we have (not here in the NE) wolverines, which may also be a mustelid but I would need to confirm that.
In the SW there are black-footed ferrets that eat prairie dogs (sort of like a woodchuck or groundhog-not sure if you have those in the UK). The black footed ferret is protected in some areas, or may be listed as endangered-would need to confirm that too.
Thanks for the clarification.
Tree
I forgot to add here in the NE we also have Fishers we are larger than marten and are known to kill the wandering housecat.
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