? Weasels | ||||||||||||
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| [image] Long-tailed Weasel | ||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
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| Species | ||||||||||||
| Mustela africana Mustela altaica Mustela erminea Mustela eversmannii Mustela felipei Mustela frenata Mustela kathiah Mustela lutreola Mustela lutreolina Mustela nigripes Mustela nivalis Mustela nudipes Mustela putorius Mustela sibirica Mustela strigidorsa Mustela vison |
Weasels are mammals in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. Originally, the name "weasel" was applied to one Species of the genus, the European form of the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis). Literary references to weasels usually refer to this species rather than to the genus as a whole.
Weasels vary in length from 15 to 35 centimeters, and usually have a light brown upper coat and a white belly; in many species, populations living at high latitudes moult to a pure white coat in winter. They have long slender bodies, which enable them to follow their prey into burrows. Their tails are typically almost as long as the rest of their bodies. Weasels are intelligent creatures that are known for their cleverness and guile.
Most weasels feed on small mammals, and in former times were considered vermin since some species took Poultry from farms, or rabbits from commercial warrens.
Of the 16 species classified in the genus Mustela, only 10 have "weasel" in their common name. Among those that do not are the Stoat, the two species of Mink, and the polecats or ferrets.
In Mythology, it is sometimes said that the only thing which can kill a Basilisk is a weasel, though it would be killed in the conflict as well. The earliest record of this claim is in Pliny's Naturalis Historia, book 8, par. 33. It was repeated by Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae, and subsequently by many medieval bestiarists.