Sunday, August 27, 2017

Um, I have a question?





So last April I found and imaged a long-tailed weasel on the ranch. This was the first one I'd ever seen in the wild and the first one I'd ever seen on the ranch.




That's perhaps not as surprising as it might be. The ranch is large, weasels are small, and they seem to tend toward nocturnal behavior. Badgers are much larger, and I see evidence of their presence all the time, but I only see them very rarely. Like once a decade or so.

Last month the dogs got a weasel along a fenceline just south of the ranch house. It wasn't a good day for the weasel.



Did you notice the difference in coloration and markings?

Yesterday I surmised that the difference was due to sex and time of year.

It had to be that. Different markings and coloration is never associated with different species, right?

The other day I saw and photographed yet another long-tailed weasel, this one under more salubrious circumstances.



Well, I did a little more research and a little more digging.

Any number of publications confirm that the long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenatais native to Nebraska.
s


Any number of publications confirm that the stoat, or short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea), also called the Ermine, is absent from Nebraska.
s


s
The only real similarity between the two is the black-tipped tail. The Ermine is much smaller and has distinctly different markings.

Most of the range maps for Ermine distribution follow the border of the Nebraska Panhandle precisely. They are present and secure in Wyoming and Colorado, yet absent across a man-made and invisible line. Hmmm.

It's impossible for me to say for sure. I'm going by images only. It's an interesting puzzle.




8 comments:

  1. Stoat or weasel, I can't say but during a three or four wire winter in the Yampa Valley, CO, would see movement under the fresh snow. Then a white head would pop out and look around. If memory serves, they had black tipped ears.

    The barn cats would fight them for turf with the cats winning. Both were hunted by owls. Never saw one in the summer but they must have been around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How does that old saying go? The universe is different than we imagine, and in fact different then we CAN imagine. I count myself very lucky to be able to see so many new and different things. When I get to where I think I know it all it'll be time to throw dirt on my face.

      Delete
  2. Mutual of Omaha's, er Kimball's, Wild Kingdom! (I always watched that as a kid. Hence the reference. A favorite.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did Marlin Perkins get Jim Fowler to do all that crazy stuff? "...then you jump out of the helicopter and grab the rhino by its balls..."

      Delete
    2. You know that you're Jim, right?

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the post.

    Paul L. Quandt

    ReplyDelete