Weasels are about the most interesting critter we trap, in my opinion. In her book, "Weasels and Stoats", Carol King lists some fascinating data. Seems the stoat (short-tailed weasel, Mustela erminea, ermine) is the Jeffrey Epstein of the animal world. The fathers often breed the newborns, effectively "raping" them soon after birth. These tiny newborns then grow rapidly, bearing the litters of their fathers (in many cases), that way assuring their DNA is passed on. Kind'a gross, but effective I guess.

Also, there's tremendous variation in the size of the three weasel species in North America. For example, the short-tailed weasel in Alaska is often nearly as big as the long-tailed weasel in Idaho. These huge clinal differences have led some scientists to question the current systematics. I wouldn't be surprised to see a whole new classification of the weasels in the near future.


I catch long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata) in marten boxes quite regularly in Idaho.



In boxes with rat snap-traps or foothold traps, I've tried hundreds of trap-nights, and catch very few of anything. A short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea) every once in a while.



A summer long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata).



I've put out hundreds of nights of weasel boxes, often on good sign, and never caught a long-tailed weasel in one, although I get 'em regularly in Conibear boxes set for skunks or marten.



Short-tailed weasels (M. erminea) were common catches in elevated marten boxes in Alaska.



Jack

I love trapping weasels. Too bad they are worth so little. There was a time when a nice clean white one might fetch close to $10.

A weasel was one of the first animals I trapped as a teenager. Sold it for a dollar. Wish I had just kept it and tanned it.

I wish that with all my first animals

I've never trapped them as they don't seem to be that common...

Bushmaster -

Excellent photos. Thanks for contributing.


Jack

Such neat wee white ones. With their black tip tail. I hope to add a nice one to my fur wall sometime this winter/early spring , from AK.

Fantastic work Sharon!

Great pics!

Right behind foot trapping coyotes, I love trapping weasels

Enjoy their smell

Prairie long tails here,,,

Love seeing the ermine. If we had any around here I would be a serious weasel trapper for sure.

I like having weasels around the place here. They are excellent mousers. I caught one in the spring of the year as a kid that was still white on the back and brown on the belly. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

I like to catch the northern shortailed ermine.they are easy to tan and they sell quicker than any other tanned fur,usually in bulk.
Longtailed weasels which were unheard of here up until about 8 years ago are noticeably increasing in numbers here every year.
They are expanding their range northward.
Interestingly there have been a few sightings of northern animals here lately.
Seen some pictures of Ptarmigan posted by different people around the area this winter,one picture of several ptarmigan in the church parking lot in town.

Why do you think that is, Boco ? The increase in longtailed ?

I had this guy rolling eggs away with his nose.






He rolled them through the deep snow.






This one hangs in my house.

I dont really know,but likely the change in the length and severity of the winters here over the past couple decades.
Bluejays are also a species that started showing up occasionally about 20 years ago but have not seemed to increase.And I also happened to catch a bobcat this year which is an animal that is not known this far north.About 300 miles north of their northern range limit.

I like the little animal to trap.

They are a neat critter for sure. Outside of a Least Weasel that I caught in a live rodent trap I have never caught one. I saw a couple of them run across the road in the Winter when I lived in North Dakota. The live caught one I kept for a week just to observe it. Caught it in the Summer. Put it in a empty aquarium that we had at the time. It was a freaking killing MACHINE. If you dropped a live mouse in with it, you couldnt count to 5 before the mouse was caught! I would much rather have a pet weasel for mouse control than a cat.

I get that. Blue jays from back east began to show here too, several years back. Couldn't believe my ears when I heard that typical scolding that I used to hear many ears ago back east. But there he was, in a tree I planted . Stayed a few days then moved on. Haven't seen another one since then.

Either way, enjoy those weasels.

Someday I want a very nice hide for my display.

Yukon Jeff, what clear nice close up shots you have of your eggie stealer.

Like the one especially framed of him sitting up. Those cute wee feetzies.

Sharon, I had to look a few times I thought it was a real picture from a camera. WOW! What a beautiful painting!! What talent and thank you foor sharing!!

Thanks Snowy, and Ctraps . I always give all credit to the amazing photos provided for reference. Such as, also those perfect close ups of those feetzies that Bushmaster took. Just love those details.

And bobcats,
Has to be global warming

Some great photos.
Been trying to photograph a weasel for several years with no luck so far, we have a fairly low density in my area.
I did learn trapping them if you set in tracks catches come fairly quickly. This is a weasel Hwy I found a few days ago.

The dog took me and the shotgun for a walk. On the way out we checked this weasel box across the road from the house, I had set on the end of the caragana. It was empty and still set. We walk out to the first slough and I shot a limit of roosters and headed back toward the house. When we were 76 to 80 yards from the box the dog took off running toward the box. I called him back and he came almost to me then headed back to the box. Here is a picture of what we had once I got to the box. I dispatched the long tail and took him out of the trap. I reset the trap and closed the box and looked down where I had laid the weasel and he was gone. My first thought was he ran off. I looked around and the dog was just across the road heading for the house with the weasel. I had told him t leave it alone, but he thought it was his since hew found it.

Cute little guy

You can't help but admire those little buggers. They have an attitude that you just can't ignore.

Catching these little buggers are just as exciting as catching coyotes.

Hillbilly biology

Very nice. So lifelike.

yukonjeff -

If I ran across those snow tracks rolling the egg, I assume I'd be curious and stumped for quite awhile. That's some of the neatest tracks I've ever seen. Ecellent photo! Thanks!

Thanks, If I didnt see him rolling the egg away I would of been stumped too.

This fall I had one get into the chicken coop and dig into a nest of eggs that were in the process of hatching, I saw it in the nest cracking the eggs before I could swat at it he took off. Only one egg hatched. Normally they dont bother the chickens or eggs.

Yeah Jeff -

I have many tracks of long-tails around all winter. Some tracks of short-tails. I've never had them bother the chickens, that I know of. Have had minor troubles with striped skunks, red foxes, marten, and raccoons; never with weasels.

Jack

Wonderful thread ! Thanks for the pictures.Wished I could find and post the part of David Thompson's story about the ermine bringing down David's gull eggs from the upper room with steps ,he would go back up for another egg and Thompson would steal the one previously brought down .The ermine would really get mad and noisy trying to figure it out .

All I see is a whole bunch of fleas, and about 5 hours of preparing them as specimens.
Because of their going everywhere they are great collectors of fleas.
I can see at least 10 on the outside and probably another 10 under the hair. What is interesting is once you skin the weasel on the skin side you can see the hiding fleas in the hair.
Due to the arrangements that I have those 20 fleas would be $ 340.00 in tax receipts for my records.

If you also look at the ear, there was probably a tick embedded on it. Probably Ixodes texanus or [i]Ixodes gregsoni[/i] of which there has not been a male of the species described