Weasel

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Weasels Template:IPAc-en are mammals of the genus Mustela of the family Mustelidae. The genus Mustela includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets, and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bodies and short legs. The family Mustelidae, or mustelids (which also includes badgers, otters, and wolverines), is often referred to as the "weasel family". In the UK, the term "weasel" usually refers to the smallest species, the least weasel (M. nivalis),<ref name=SOED>Template:Cite book</ref> the smallest carnivoran species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Least weasels vary in length from Template:Convert,<ref name="WeaselSize">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> females being smaller than the males, and usually have red or brown upper coats and white bellies; some populations of some species moult to a wholly white coat in winter. They have long, slender bodies, which enable them to follow their prey into burrows. Their tails may be from Template:Convert long.<ref name="WeaselSize" />

Weasels feed on small mammals and have from time to time been considered vermin because some species took poultry from farms or rabbits from commercial warrens. They do, on the other hand, eat large numbers of rodents. Their range spans Europe, North America, much of Asia and South America, and small areas in North Africa.

TerminologyEdit

The English word "weasel" was originally applied to one species of the genus, the European form of the least weasel (Mustela nivalis). This usage is retained in British English, where the name is also extended to cover several other small species of the genus. However, in technical discourse and in American usage, the term "weasel" can refer to any member of the genus, the genus as a whole, and even to members of the related genus Neogale. Of the 16 extant species currently classified in the genus Mustela, 10 have "weasel" in their common names. Among those that do not are the three species of ermine,Template:Refn the polecats, the ferret, and the European mink.<ref name="NHoWaS"/>Template:Rp

The American mink and the extinct sea mink were commonly included in this genus as Mustela vison and Mustela macrodon, respectively, but in 1999 they were moved to the genus Neovison.<ref>Abramov, A.V. 1999. A taxonomic review of the genus Mustela (Mammalia, Carnivora). Zoosystematica Rossica, 8(2): 357-364</ref> In 2021, both Neovison species, along with the long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata), Amazon weasel (Mustela africana) and Colombian weasel (Mustela felipei) were moved to the genus Neogale, as the clade containing these five species was found to be fully distinct from Mustela.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

TaxonomyEdit

The genus name Mustela comes from the Latin word for weasel combining the words mus meaning "mouse" and telum meaning "javelin" for its long body.<ref name="NHoWaS">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

SpeciesEdit

The following information is according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System and MammalDiversity.

Subgenus	Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
Mustela	File:Mountain Weasel (Mustela altaica).jpg	Mustela altaica Template:Small	Mountain weasel	Northern and Southern Asia
		Mustela aistoodonnivalis Template:Small	Missing-toothed pygmy weasel	Shaanxi and Sichuan, China
	File:Mustela erminea upright2.jpg	Mustela erminea Template:Small	Stoat, Beringian ermine, Eurasian ermine, or short-tailed weasel	Europe and Northern Asia Arctic Canada and Alaska (United States) Southern Asia (non-native) New Zealand (non-native)
	File:Haida Ermine (Mustela haidarum).jpg	Mustela haidarum Preble, 1898	Haida ermine	Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada) and Alexander Archipelago (Alaska, United States)
	File:Yellow bellied weasel, Shillong, India.jpg	Mustela kathiah Template:Small	Yellow-bellied weasel	Southern Asia
	File:Mustela nivalis -British Wildlife Centre-4.jpg	Mustela nivalis Template:Small	Least weasel	Europe, North Africa and Northern Asia North America Southern Asia (non-native) New Zealand (non-native)
	File:Ermine- Bacon Fiend (14083889879).jpg	Mustela richardsonii Bonaparte, 1838	American ermine	Most of North America south of Alaska and the Arctic Circle; eastern Nunavut and Baffin Island
Lutreola	File:Mustela itatsi on tree.JPG	Mustela itatsi Template:Small	Japanese weasel	Japan and formerly Sakhalin Island, Russia
	File:Mink1.jpg	Mustela lutreola Template:Small	European mink	Europe
		Mustela lutreolina Template:Small	Indonesian mountain weasel	Southeastern Asia
		Mustela nudipes Template:Small	Malayan weasel	Southeastern Asia
	File:Siberian Weasel Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary East Sikkim India 14.05.2016.jpg	Mustela sibirica Template:Small	Siberian weasel	Europe and Northern Asia Southern Asia
	File:Mustela strigidorsa.gif	Mustela strigidorsa Template:Small	Back-striped weasel	Southern Asia
Putorius	File:Wild steppe polecat.jpg	Mustela eversmanii Template:Small	Steppe polecat	Southeast Europe and Northern Asia Southern Asia
	File:Ferret 2008.png	Mustela furo Linnaeus, 1758	Domestic ferret	Domestic Worldwide (domesticated); New Zealand (non-native)
	File:Polecat in denmark.jpg	Mustela putorius Template:Small	European polecat	Europe, North Africa and Northern Asia
	File:Mustela nigripes 2.jpg	Mustela nigripes Template:Small	Black-footed ferret	North America

¹ Europe and Northern Asia division excludes China.

Cultural meaningsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Weasels have been assigned a variety of cultural meanings.

In Greek culture, a weasel near one's house is a sign of bad luck, even evil, "especially if there is in the household a girl about to be married", since the animal (based on its Greek etymology) was thought to be an unhappy bride who was transformed into a weasel<ref name=lawson>Template:Cite book</ref> and consequently delights in destroying wedding dresses.<ref name=abbott/> In Macedonia, however, weasels are generally seen as an omen of good fortune.<ref name=lawson/><ref name=abbott>Template:Cite book</ref>

In early-modern Mecklenburg, Germany, amulets from weasels were deemed to have strong magic; the period between 15 August and 8 September was specifically designated for the killing of weasels.<ref name=Thomas1900/>Template:Rp

In Montagne Noire (France), Ruthenia, and the early medieval culture of the Wends, weasels were not meant to be killed.<ref name=Thomas1900>Template:Cite journal</ref>

According to Daniel Defoe also, meeting a weasel is a bad omen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In English-speaking areas, weasel can be an insult, noun or verb, for someone regarded as sneaky, conniving or untrustworthy. Similarly, "weasel words" is a critical term for words or phrasing that are vague, misleading or equivocal.

Japanese superstitionsEdit

File:Ten-Japanese-Marten-from-Gazu-Hyakki-Yagyo-by-Sekien.png

"Ten" from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama

File:Mustela sibirica201602-02.jpg

Japanese weasel

In Japan, Template:Nihongo were seen as yōkai (causing strange occurrences). According to the encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue from the Edo period, a pack of weasels would cause conflagrations, and the cry of a weasel was considered a harbinger of misfortune. In the Niigata Prefecture, the sound of a pack of weasels making a rustle resembled six people hulling rice, so was called the "weasel's six-person mortar", and it was an omen for one's home to decline or flourish. It is said that when people chase after this sound, the sound stops.<ref name="yokaijiten">村上健司編著『妖怪事典』毎日新聞社、2000年、36頁。Template:ISBN。</ref>

They are also said to shapeshift like the fox (kitsune) or tanuki, and the nyūdō-bōzu told about in legends in the Tōhoku region and the Chūbu region are considered weasels in disguise, and they are also said to shapeshift into ōnyūdō and little monks.<ref name="yokaijiten" />

In the collection of depictions Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama, they were depicted under the title 鼬, but they were read not as "itachi", but rather as "ten",<ref>高田衛監修稲田篤信・田中直日編『鳥山石燕画図百鬼夜行』国書刊行会、1992年、50頁。Template:ISBN。</ref> and "ten" were considered to be weasels that have reached one hundred years of age and became yōkai that possessed supernatural powers.<ref>少年社・中村友紀夫・武田えり子編『妖怪の本異界の闇に蠢く百鬼夜行の伝説』学習研究社〈New sight mook〉、1999年、123頁。Template:ISBN。</ref> Another theory is that when weasels reach several hundred years of age, they become mujina (Japanese badgers).<ref>草野巧『幻想動物事典』新紀元社、1997年、30頁。Template:ISBN。</ref>

In Japanese, weasels are called Template:Nihongo and in the Tōhoku Region and Shinshu, it was believed that there were families that were able to use a certain practice to freely use kudagitsune as iizuna-tsukai or kitsune-mochi. It is said that Mount Iizuna, from the Nagano Prefecture, got its name due to how the gods gave people mastery of this technique from there.<ref name="koj2">『広辞苑第4版』(1991年)、岩波書店「いづなつかい【飯綱使・飯縄遣】」の項</ref>

According to the folklorist Mutō Tetsujō, "They are called izuna in the Senboku District,Template:Refn Akita Prefecture, and there are also the ichiko (itako) that use them."<ref name="muto-042">Template:Citation。</ref> Also, in the Kitaakita District, they are called mōsuke (猛助), and they are feared as yōkai even more than foxes (kitsune).<ref name="muto-042"/>

In the Ainu language, ermines are called upas-čironnup or sáčiri, but since least weasels are also called sáčiri, Mashio Chiri surmised that the honorary title poy-sáčiri-kamuy (where poy means "small") refers to least weasels.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

KamaitachiEdit

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Kamaitachi is a phenomenon wherein one who is idle is suddenly injured as if his or her skin were cut by a scythe. In the past, this was thought to be "the deed of an invisible yōkai weasel". An alternate theory, asserts that kamaitachi is derived from Template:Nihongo, so were not originally related to weasels at all.<ref name="shokoku">Template:Cite book</ref>

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Weasels Template:Carnivora Template:Musteloidea Template:Taxonbar Template:Authority control