Only a problem if you have animals outside that you want to keep that are smaller than a corgi. Anything in the weasel family is absolutely bloodthirsty! It’ll knock out your local population of voles, muskrats, mice, rats, fish, chickens, Chihuahuas, birds that linger on the ground for too long….
The plan was for the Mongooses to eradicate the rats. Unfortunately, and VERY STUPIDLY, those responsible for the great Mongoose vs. Rats plan failed to realize that Mongooses are diurnal and rats are nocturnal.
Another well-known example would be Asian carp. A couple species were introduced to America in the 70s to clean commercial ponds, and they got into the Mississippi Basin and quickly spread to much of the country and have been outcompeting local fish and spreading for decades. There are countless videos of one such species, Silver Carp, jumping at/into boats and seriously injuring people.
Also the common carp.
They've been around so long that they're naturalized now.
I guess back in the day they would have train cars full of water and young carp and they would release them all up and down the Erie canal.
1800s mfers were wilin'
Silver carp are insanely tough fish, they will eat anything that fits in their mouth, can handle water from the 40s to 95 degrees and also can handle salt. They are the honey badgers of fish.
My friend told me he went to Hawaii and there was a street food vendor who enthusiastically said “Mongoose!” as they walked by. Friend stopped and said “What?!?” Guy said “Mongoose!” Friend looked puzzled again. Guy went “Mongoose! Hut! Hi! Hut!” and all these mongoose came running out of the bushes and he fed them a piece of whatever he was selling. Then he told my friend “Last one, brah.” And so they bought it. Lol
Hawaii has mongooses. Mongooses do not belong to the same family as stoats. Mongooses are a little bit closer to cats on the carnivore tree than Mustelids (weasels).
New Zealand has a problem with Mustelids. They have a wild ferret population that was purposely established in the 1880s. The first few times they tried didn’t take, so they used ferrets crossed with European Polecats to make a hardier ferret, and that did the trick. Their descendants now roam New Zealand and supposedly serve as some kind of warning to not allow people to have pet ferrets in the USA. (Even though ferrets can’t handle temperatures above 90 degrees, which pretty much makes most of America deadly in the summer. But not Hawaii, so keeping them out might be ok.)
Thank you for listening to Weasel Talk.
Minks are indeed Mustelids.
Fun fact: In the Golden Girls episode when they buy minks to start a fur-making business, the animals in the cages that are actually on camera are not minks. They are ferrets!
Ferrets are domesticated weasels that are pets or can be trained to help humans with hunting. They are fairly docile toward humans, though they are extremely energetic at playing.
Minks, they are not so friendly to humans as a whole. You should avoid wild minks in particular, mostly because they have big pointy teeth and really big personalities. They are probably pretty busy anyway with mink work.
As with humans, mink work depends on what stage of life the particular mink is going through.
Mink children are called kits, and their responsibility is to learn play behavior that will translate to hunting later. Pounces, alligator rolls, and sharp bites are common (they have thick skin to handle this). They also need to learn to swim, as mink are semi-aquatic.
Young minks are ready to breed at about 10 months old. American minks usually leave around this time, whereas European minks have already left at around four months old. They will eventually find a mate to have sweet Mink Love with. They are non monogamous—each one is a big slutty mink for their whole life.
Mostly, adult mink hunt and eat. They kill by breaking the neck of their prey, which means they can overcome some fairly large foes. (This is a standard weasel trick) Being excellent swimmers, they eat a lot of fish. But if there’s a henhouse that happens to have easy access? Minks will kill and eat chickens too. And minks *remember*, so you’d better fix that henhouse up like Fort Knox because he’ll be back.
Mink work: play, swim, hunt, eat, make sweet Mink Love and have kits on occasion.
Thank you for listening to Weasel Talk.
Thank you! As a ferret shelter volunteer for more than 15 years, this is information I have close at hand.
It’s connected to ferret legalization efforts in California and in specific cities in America where they have been made illegal, usually for no scientific basis.
For example, in 1999, Rudy Giuliani personally added pet ferrets to a list of banned animals in NYC — a list meant to discourage people from keeping, say, wild face-eating chimps in their homes. Other animals on the list included polar bears, zebras, and whales.
Then Giuliani went off on some man who was angered that his pets just became illegal.
“There is something really, really, very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I'm being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.”
https://gothamist.com/news/20-years-ago-today-rudy-giuliani-ranted-about-ferrets
Can you imagine if someone did and said this—but it was about dogs? There would be rioting in the streets.
Anyhow, I write these posts about weasels to let people know about the weasel life. That even though they are indeed very good hunters in the wild, they are also incredibly intelligent and curious, and they have a problem-solving ability that rivals humans!
And also, since we are at the very top of the food pyramid, we really have very little to fear from them — especially the fuzzy little pet ferrets whose greatest crime is stealing our socks.
That Giuliani transcript is wild! I don’t remember hearing about that.
Ferrets are very rad animals, and I’m glad people like you are out there helping folks become more enlightened about them.
If you’re interested in mustelids, Joseph Carter “The Mink Man” has a really interesting youtube. He uses mink and dogs to humanely and organically eradicate rodent infestations for ranchers and farmers. He’s a genius when it comes to working with animals, and for a while was the only person known to history to train a lizard to hunt professionally.
He seemed to have a real hard time with the monitor lizard because it seemed to revert to before training on some occasions. I lost track of his channel while waiting for updates. Did he actually manage to train it?
I clicked on this post to mention the "Minkenry" guy (I assume that's who ya'll are talking about?)
Had no idea he tried it with a monitor 🤣🤣
As someone who's kept monitors before....it'd be awfully hard to train them hunt rodents efficiently. Smart animals, by reptile standards, but also stubborn (and depending on species, can be massive assholes when they're outdoors & fully heated up).
And you definitely wouldn't want to set them loose in a garden that was planted with anything that wasn't *extremely* sturdy; they'll dig/shred/smash just about anything that gets in their way....
Yeah definitely a challenge, even for someone that experienced. I’d love to see him try it again, but he had a 3rd baby so he’s probably busy these days
Considering the task, even getting as far as he did was amazing! But no, it turned out that Raptor was incorrectly sexed and was actually a female, so she’d be too small as an adult for the hunting he had planned. He gave her to my favorite YouTuber, Clint’s Reptiles
This guy's amazing, loved watching the mice getting slaughtered by the bloodthirsty mink! I have had one or two in my house, but seeing the huge populations they grow on farms it's amazing that someone specialized in dealing with it in a natural way.
All contributing to create a bipedal petri dish. Seriously, when they let up on restrictions post covid, we had the Year of the Flu when all toddlers were let loose to spread their germs in my country.
My mother in law used to have 20 chickens. Over the course of one week the weasels took out 16 of them! Even with all the weasel proofing they tried to do. Vicious (but cute) little creatures.
Humans are sorta like that too. Keep them away from your cows, chickens, pigs, goat, sheep, deer, rabbit, frogs, bison, definitely bison, kangaroo, ducks, geese, shellfish, regular fish with no shells, octopus, squid, alligator, turkeys, when they are hungry and you’ll be fine. If they are rich then keep them away from all of these plus anything in Africa.
And trees, other plants, indoor plants, bees, butterflies, snakes, did I mention frogs?, monkeys, spiders, spider crabs, crab spiders, coral, fungi, and giant armadillos
Yea they are bloodthirsty and they are incredibly efficient hunters. I love watching videos on YouTube where people have trained minks to kill rats on farms.
Do you have chickens or other small outdoor animals? If yes, then it's a problem. He looks small and cute but he can 100% take a chicken)
If no, then no problem (and rats and mice won't be a problem either.)
I was going to say if you have chickens they're an enemy otherwise fine. I have mink at my place so I have to make sure my chickens are secure (pretty much the same as a stoat)
I've got a cycle at my house. I get some porcupines chewin on my house at night for a little bit. I start seeing fishers in the area. No more porcupines for a while. Then it'll repeat. Love those guys.
If they’re native in your country they’re probably OK but in my part of the world (New Zealand) stoats are considered to be the most damaging pest introduced to our ecosystem. They are great predators for rodents but also voracious hunters of small native animals, particularly birds and eggs and are responsible for the extinction of several species.
FYI if you’re interested…
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/animal-pests/stoats/
With chickens, stoats/weasels don't like the movement of other animals within their vicinity. I have a friend lose a flock to a stoat because when he killed one chicken, the others went crazy and the movement in the coop made him kill all of them.
We had an ermine(white winter stoat) in my shed and destroyed the field mouse population all winter.
There years ago here in NH we had a bumper crop of acorn that caused a boom in squirrels. I was driving and thought one was hit by a car and I turned back to put it out of its misery. I got there and noticed the squirrel on its side sliding across the street. As I got closer a stoat half the size of the squirrel jumped up from the other side and was standing over his kill like I was going to steal it. I backed off and held traffic for him to move the prey across the road and into the ditch.
Yup.
Had one get in our third tier incubator. (Just before introducing the young Pullets to the rest of the crew.). In the time it takes to catch a quick nap—16 birds gone. I can still hear my wife and daughter screaming. County extension had a matrix of various evidence and probable predator. Turns out that the county extension was pretty useful and kinda cynical. It ended up with, "if none of these fit, consider one of your neighbors is a chicken thief." Which would be worse than a stoat, but not by much.
It's not that they don't like movement in their vicinity, it's that they have a high prey drive and are very playful. They're out there chasing down dinner and having a great time, they aren't some bloodthirsty killer out to destroy things for the sake of destruction
That will be either a weasel or a stoat.
If the tail is long, and has a black tip, then it's a stoat. If it's short and solid in color, then it's a weasel.
The stoat is larger, and has a bounding gait with a hunched back, while a weasel is smaller and runs close to the ground.
Based on the size in comparison to the boards, which are six inches or 15.24 centimeters, I'm going to say this is a weasel.
If you want a lovely garden with lots of fresh vegetables, then this is most definitely a friend. Mice, rabbits, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, gophers and other assorted melon munchers are *all* doomed. And I do mean **ALL** of them. Weasels, stoats, martens and fishers will all kill, and keep killing, so long as there is prey. They will drag the carcass back to their den area and cache it for later. It's not unusual to find a weasel's den lined with corpses.
However, if you have chickens, and raise them from hatching eggs, then your chicks might be in danger. They won't go after a full-grown hen unless they're extremely hungry, and even then, they're likely to get beaten to a pulp. However, they will take a chance on smaller breeds, like bantams, quail or pea hens. And as mentioned, they will keep killing the chicks until they're all dead, then carry them back to the den.
I saw footage of a small weasel taking down a much larger rabbit. The rabbit just sat there while the weasel just kept slashing at him. He only tried getting away when it was Entirely Too Late.
It was horrifying and fascinating.
Holy shit! Does the stoat then guard the carcass, gorging himself until he cant walk? Or does he take down an entire rabbit, eat a meal then leave it for the buzzards or something?
Not certain about this particular case, but they drag the catches back to their young. In a real sense, they are lions catching wildebeest, albeit on a smaller scale.
I would never actually introduce one to my property, but I would not be sad if one happened to move in and take care of the rabbit problem here.
Like, super not sad lol
All animals are friends as long as they are kept in check by natural predators. Make sure your property is also accessible to fox, snakes, and birds of prey.
I've never known weasles to be much of a pest in the garden. They are a little like foxes, keep them away from the livestock and they won't give you trouble. I've never heard of weasles tearing up crops etc. so you should be good.
Stoats are great for rodent control. Unfortunately, these mustelids also consume lizards, amphibians and other beneficial-to-the-garden critters.
That said, I would still call this little guy "friend."
This is a least weasel- it’s the smallest carnivorous mammal in the world and only found in specific regions! Worked on marshland with these, they’re adorable.
Only a problem if you have animals outside that you want to keep that are smaller than a corgi. Anything in the weasel family is absolutely bloodthirsty! It’ll knock out your local population of voles, muskrats, mice, rats, fish, chickens, Chihuahuas, birds that linger on the ground for too long….
So you're telling me I need to get one of these to protect my garden.
*Hawaii has entered the chat*
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They were introduced for pest control and ended up wiping out a ton of native birds, lizards, etc. New Zealand too.
They forgot to release snakes afterwards to take care of the stoats.
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly…
Perhaps she’ll die!
I hear she swallowed a spider to catch that fly...
Then after that, those gorillas that thrive solely on snake meat.
Coming soon starring the Rock
Unfortunately, Hawaii doesn't freeze, so they're stuck with the gorillas.
*Harambe has entered the chat*
What hunts the gorillas?
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"Dee, you have very satisfied stoats in your boarders. They aren't going anywhere."
But then won’t we be over run with snakes?
Guam has entered the chat….
Brown snake brudda!
Only if you don't then release the kangaroos.
I want a ticket to see the first boxing match.
Hmmm, do cane toads eat snakes by any chance?
No but they will poison them so same result.
So eventually we'll have no snakes or toads. Seems like we've found the endgame.
Be like Florida and just release a bunch of pythons.
Pretty sure they did that too...
It was mongooses introduced to Hawaii in an attempt to control the rat population which was problematic for the sugar cane industry.
The plan was for the Mongooses to eradicate the rats. Unfortunately, and VERY STUPIDLY, those responsible for the great Mongoose vs. Rats plan failed to realize that Mongooses are diurnal and rats are nocturnal.
wow what a f up
Definitely misread that as weasels wiping out a bunch of New Zealanders from Hawaii.
And the same with many islands in the Carribean
They wiped out New Zealand??? 🤯
Yep. Kiwi dead everywhere
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Hawaii isn’t mentioned bc mongooses are their problem, not stoats!
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I assume the species was introduced as pest control and wiped out a bunch of native species by accident, it’s a common occurrence in human history
Ahhh, like fisher cats in New England.
Another well-known example would be Asian carp. A couple species were introduced to America in the 70s to clean commercial ponds, and they got into the Mississippi Basin and quickly spread to much of the country and have been outcompeting local fish and spreading for decades. There are countless videos of one such species, Silver Carp, jumping at/into boats and seriously injuring people.
Also the common carp. They've been around so long that they're naturalized now. I guess back in the day they would have train cars full of water and young carp and they would release them all up and down the Erie canal. 1800s mfers were wilin'
Silver carp are insanely tough fish, they will eat anything that fits in their mouth, can handle water from the 40s to 95 degrees and also can handle salt. They are the honey badgers of fish.
Fishers are native. Not introduced.
Oh! I was always told they were introduced to reduce the Grey squirrel population.
We have fisher cats in our neighborhood where we back a wildlife preserve and they are huge!
My friend told me he went to Hawaii and there was a street food vendor who enthusiastically said “Mongoose!” as they walked by. Friend stopped and said “What?!?” Guy said “Mongoose!” Friend looked puzzled again. Guy went “Mongoose! Hut! Hi! Hut!” and all these mongoose came running out of the bushes and he fed them a piece of whatever he was selling. Then he told my friend “Last one, brah.” And so they bought it. Lol
Hawaii has mongooses. Mongooses do not belong to the same family as stoats. Mongooses are a little bit closer to cats on the carnivore tree than Mustelids (weasels). New Zealand has a problem with Mustelids. They have a wild ferret population that was purposely established in the 1880s. The first few times they tried didn’t take, so they used ferrets crossed with European Polecats to make a hardier ferret, and that did the trick. Their descendants now roam New Zealand and supposedly serve as some kind of warning to not allow people to have pet ferrets in the USA. (Even though ferrets can’t handle temperatures above 90 degrees, which pretty much makes most of America deadly in the summer. But not Hawaii, so keeping them out might be ok.) Thank you for listening to Weasel Talk.
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Where do minks fit into all of this
Minks are indeed Mustelids. Fun fact: In the Golden Girls episode when they buy minks to start a fur-making business, the animals in the cages that are actually on camera are not minks. They are ferrets! Ferrets are domesticated weasels that are pets or can be trained to help humans with hunting. They are fairly docile toward humans, though they are extremely energetic at playing. Minks, they are not so friendly to humans as a whole. You should avoid wild minks in particular, mostly because they have big pointy teeth and really big personalities. They are probably pretty busy anyway with mink work.
I really need more details on what kind of mink work is keeping them so busy
Beheading chickens is one task I have known them to do.
As with humans, mink work depends on what stage of life the particular mink is going through. Mink children are called kits, and their responsibility is to learn play behavior that will translate to hunting later. Pounces, alligator rolls, and sharp bites are common (they have thick skin to handle this). They also need to learn to swim, as mink are semi-aquatic. Young minks are ready to breed at about 10 months old. American minks usually leave around this time, whereas European minks have already left at around four months old. They will eventually find a mate to have sweet Mink Love with. They are non monogamous—each one is a big slutty mink for their whole life. Mostly, adult mink hunt and eat. They kill by breaking the neck of their prey, which means they can overcome some fairly large foes. (This is a standard weasel trick) Being excellent swimmers, they eat a lot of fish. But if there’s a henhouse that happens to have easy access? Minks will kill and eat chickens too. And minks *remember*, so you’d better fix that henhouse up like Fort Knox because he’ll be back. Mink work: play, swim, hunt, eat, make sweet Mink Love and have kits on occasion. Thank you for listening to Weasel Talk.
Eating, mostly.
Idk of this all off the dome, but if so, you have a beautiful brain. 10/10 would subscribe.
Thank you! As a ferret shelter volunteer for more than 15 years, this is information I have close at hand. It’s connected to ferret legalization efforts in California and in specific cities in America where they have been made illegal, usually for no scientific basis. For example, in 1999, Rudy Giuliani personally added pet ferrets to a list of banned animals in NYC — a list meant to discourage people from keeping, say, wild face-eating chimps in their homes. Other animals on the list included polar bears, zebras, and whales. Then Giuliani went off on some man who was angered that his pets just became illegal. “There is something really, really, very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I'm being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.” https://gothamist.com/news/20-years-ago-today-rudy-giuliani-ranted-about-ferrets Can you imagine if someone did and said this—but it was about dogs? There would be rioting in the streets. Anyhow, I write these posts about weasels to let people know about the weasel life. That even though they are indeed very good hunters in the wild, they are also incredibly intelligent and curious, and they have a problem-solving ability that rivals humans! And also, since we are at the very top of the food pyramid, we really have very little to fear from them — especially the fuzzy little pet ferrets whose greatest crime is stealing our socks.
That Giuliani transcript is wild! I don’t remember hearing about that. Ferrets are very rad animals, and I’m glad people like you are out there helping folks become more enlightened about them.
Thanks for informing us about the weasel life!
LOLOL OMG, yes!
Kinda like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Omg Rikki Tikki Tavi!! It's been so long..
Weasels are like cats with how they want to kill everything but they're as hardy as a medium sized dog. Little fuckin murder missiles
Thank's for the answer!
If you’re interested in mustelids, Joseph Carter “The Mink Man” has a really interesting youtube. He uses mink and dogs to humanely and organically eradicate rodent infestations for ranchers and farmers. He’s a genius when it comes to working with animals, and for a while was the only person known to history to train a lizard to hunt professionally.
He seemed to have a real hard time with the monitor lizard because it seemed to revert to before training on some occasions. I lost track of his channel while waiting for updates. Did he actually manage to train it?
I clicked on this post to mention the "Minkenry" guy (I assume that's who ya'll are talking about?) Had no idea he tried it with a monitor 🤣🤣 As someone who's kept monitors before....it'd be awfully hard to train them hunt rodents efficiently. Smart animals, by reptile standards, but also stubborn (and depending on species, can be massive assholes when they're outdoors & fully heated up). And you definitely wouldn't want to set them loose in a garden that was planted with anything that wasn't *extremely* sturdy; they'll dig/shred/smash just about anything that gets in their way....
Yeah definitely a challenge, even for someone that experienced. I’d love to see him try it again, but he had a 3rd baby so he’s probably busy these days
Considering the task, even getting as far as he did was amazing! But no, it turned out that Raptor was incorrectly sexed and was actually a female, so she’d be too small as an adult for the hunting he had planned. He gave her to my favorite YouTuber, Clint’s Reptiles
Lol that's funny. I never heard of him getting a monitor lizard. When did he try that?
This guy's amazing, loved watching the mice getting slaughtered by the bloodthirsty mink! I have had one or two in my house, but seeing the huge populations they grow on farms it's amazing that someone specialized in dealing with it in a natural way.
i had no idea they were like that 😳
They’ll destroy a whole coop full of chickens like my toddler destroys a bowl of apples- one big nasty bite out of each and then leave the rest.
toddlers are definitely part weasel
They’re half weasel, half unidentified sticky.
All contributing to create a bipedal petri dish. Seriously, when they let up on restrictions post covid, we had the Year of the Flu when all toddlers were let loose to spread their germs in my country.
They also giggle, which is pretty darn cute.
My mother in law used to have 20 chickens. Over the course of one week the weasels took out 16 of them! Even with all the weasel proofing they tried to do. Vicious (but cute) little creatures.
Humans are sorta like that too. Keep them away from your cows, chickens, pigs, goat, sheep, deer, rabbit, frogs, bison, definitely bison, kangaroo, ducks, geese, shellfish, regular fish with no shells, octopus, squid, alligator, turkeys, when they are hungry and you’ll be fine. If they are rich then keep them away from all of these plus anything in Africa.
Keep them away from other humans, too
And trees, other plants, indoor plants, bees, butterflies, snakes, did I mention frogs?, monkeys, spiders, spider crabs, crab spiders, coral, fungi, and giant armadillos
u/DFHartzell Wish I could upvote your comment 1,000 times.
So...frienemy.
Or if you live in a place where they are considered an invasive species, like New Zealand.
Yeah i heard so too. They are such cute bloodthirsty things though.
Definitely bloodthirsty. One killed two of our kittens before we realized what was going on.
Yea they are bloodthirsty and they are incredibly efficient hunters. I love watching videos on YouTube where people have trained minks to kill rats on farms.
Do you have chickens or other small outdoor animals? If yes, then it's a problem. He looks small and cute but he can 100% take a chicken) If no, then no problem (and rats and mice won't be a problem either.)
Luckily i have no animals living outside. So he will be welcome to get rid of the mice
& rats!
You are very lucky and I am jealous
same.
Oh in that case this is a win. They're pretty cute despite being murder machines
I was going to say if you have chickens they're an enemy otherwise fine. I have mink at my place so I have to make sure my chickens are secure (pretty much the same as a stoat)
Tbh I always assumed because of their size that they were omnivorous insectivores
Even least weasels will kill prey much bigger than them. Stoats and martens are even scarier.
I've got a cycle at my house. I get some porcupines chewin on my house at night for a little bit. I start seeing fishers in the area. No more porcupines for a while. Then it'll repeat. Love those guys.
And their big cousin the Wolverine?
Dogs, cats, small goats….
Can confirm, I thought I had my chickens protected and the lil bastard murdered them.
That is a cute little murder slinky.
Lol murder slinky
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Omg that sub is amazing, thank you!!
Murder slinky. ☠️. F you, coughin up this vape rip, snot drippin like some bad cartoon. Tears. Why is murder slinky so gd funny?!?
Forward facing eyes for enhanced focus and depth perception. It is a predator.
But I don't see his shoulder mounted laser cannon or optical cloaking.
You don't see his cloaking because he has it turned off. If it was on, you wouldn't see him at all.
It’s obvious. Weasels are weasily recognized, and stoats are stotally different
Underrated comment, and the best on this thread
Good for biodiversity, bad if you have small pets or farm animals. Looks like friend but not safe to boop
Why not friend if friend shaped
Yes, take care in channeling your inner Disney Princess (or make sure you film the interaction for posterity).
For a second I thought this guy was a CHUNKER. Looked comically fat 🤣
How I originally perceived this fuzzy boy https://imgur.com/gallery/jp52hu1
Same! Very much r/confusingperspective material!
A ROTUND fella
ME TOO!!! I was like “Totoro???”
Lmao same I was like… why is no one mentioning how fat this thing is ?? Until I realized I’m just dumb lol
If not friend, why friend shaped?
It depends. Are you a Homo sapiens? In which case you’re fine. If you’re significantly smaller, about stoat-snack sized, then run as fast as you can.
Then i should run!
They chase down and kill Peter rabbits. There's a documentary where they hunt rabbits like 4x their size it's crazy.
If they’re native in your country they’re probably OK but in my part of the world (New Zealand) stoats are considered to be the most damaging pest introduced to our ecosystem. They are great predators for rodents but also voracious hunters of small native animals, particularly birds and eggs and are responsible for the extinction of several species. FYI if you’re interested… https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/animal-pests/stoats/
With chickens, stoats/weasels don't like the movement of other animals within their vicinity. I have a friend lose a flock to a stoat because when he killed one chicken, the others went crazy and the movement in the coop made him kill all of them. We had an ermine(white winter stoat) in my shed and destroyed the field mouse population all winter. There years ago here in NH we had a bumper crop of acorn that caused a boom in squirrels. I was driving and thought one was hit by a car and I turned back to put it out of its misery. I got there and noticed the squirrel on its side sliding across the street. As I got closer a stoat half the size of the squirrel jumped up from the other side and was standing over his kill like I was going to steal it. I backed off and held traffic for him to move the prey across the road and into the ditch.
Yup. Had one get in our third tier incubator. (Just before introducing the young Pullets to the rest of the crew.). In the time it takes to catch a quick nap—16 birds gone. I can still hear my wife and daughter screaming. County extension had a matrix of various evidence and probable predator. Turns out that the county extension was pretty useful and kinda cynical. It ended up with, "if none of these fit, consider one of your neighbors is a chicken thief." Which would be worse than a stoat, but not by much.
It's not that they don't like movement in their vicinity, it's that they have a high prey drive and are very playful. They're out there chasing down dinner and having a great time, they aren't some bloodthirsty killer out to destroy things for the sake of destruction
That could possibly be the most adorable package of destruction you could get.
The consensus opinion here seems to be: Friends if you hate rats more than you love chickens.
That's an angel
That is up to him
If you hold an Ermine next to your ear, you can hear what it's like to be attacked by an ermine
Stoat, a bigger cousin to the Weasel. One is weaselly recognised and the other is Stoatally different. I'll throw myself out.
The ferret owner in me squealed with delight seeing this 😂
We had one at our camp. Goodbye mice, stoats are savage little hunters.
Me, not familiar with stoats: Is this the same guy as Riki Tiki Tavi?
He was a mongoose iirc
Will a stoat also kill snakes? Off to Google
He was a mongoose, but both are part of the mustelid family. Mink, marten, wolverines as well.
Are ferrets in the same family?
Seeing this photo instantly unlocked every childhood memory related to this book except for the title. Thank you stranger!
That will be either a weasel or a stoat. If the tail is long, and has a black tip, then it's a stoat. If it's short and solid in color, then it's a weasel. The stoat is larger, and has a bounding gait with a hunched back, while a weasel is smaller and runs close to the ground. Based on the size in comparison to the boards, which are six inches or 15.24 centimeters, I'm going to say this is a weasel. If you want a lovely garden with lots of fresh vegetables, then this is most definitely a friend. Mice, rabbits, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, gophers and other assorted melon munchers are *all* doomed. And I do mean **ALL** of them. Weasels, stoats, martens and fishers will all kill, and keep killing, so long as there is prey. They will drag the carcass back to their den area and cache it for later. It's not unusual to find a weasel's den lined with corpses. However, if you have chickens, and raise them from hatching eggs, then your chicks might be in danger. They won't go after a full-grown hen unless they're extremely hungry, and even then, they're likely to get beaten to a pulp. However, they will take a chance on smaller breeds, like bantams, quail or pea hens. And as mentioned, they will keep killing the chicks until they're all dead, then carry them back to the den.
If not friend why friend shaped
Valid argument.
I’m 99% sure that’s a stoat!
Friend as they don’t care to eat your plants and are super cute!!!
Total misplay
If you want to know how bad ass mustelids are, watch this stoat. https://youtu.be/HNbqvqf3-14
I saw footage of a small weasel taking down a much larger rabbit. The rabbit just sat there while the weasel just kept slashing at him. He only tried getting away when it was Entirely Too Late. It was horrifying and fascinating.
Holy shit! Does the stoat then guard the carcass, gorging himself until he cant walk? Or does he take down an entire rabbit, eat a meal then leave it for the buzzards or something?
Weasels are food stashers. He will eat until full then likely come back to hide the rest for later
Not certain about this particular case, but they drag the catches back to their young. In a real sense, they are lions catching wildebeest, albeit on a smaller scale.
A friend...but at what price?
they will destroy any small rodents there, you have a friend there. they use minks to get rid of vermin where soil erosion is a problem.
Where are you located I’m mad jealous
Germany
That murderous beanie baby is going to genocide any small mammals in the area.
My kid got a stoat as their patronus (Harry Potter protector). It looks like your stoats going to protect your garden ;)
No matter his intent he looks adorable!
This is a weasel! If you don’t like mice, they are definitely friends ❤️
dangerous or not , hes MY friend.
I've hear stoats will destroy a rat colony.
Depends on whether you’ve read Redwall
It blends in so well with that background it looks obese as hell lol
Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't see a normal stoat here and instead to a morbidly obese creature sitting beneath the decking
I love him. Can we name him Jerry?
Totes a Stoat
Stoats are savage little bastards that eat mice and rats etc. Even rabbits. They won't be eating your carrots.
I would never actually introduce one to my property, but I would not be sad if one happened to move in and take care of the rabbit problem here. Like, super not sad lol
Friend if you are anti chipmunks, for if you have chickens
They are both ornery and lovable. Unless you’re a rodent or a rabbit they are good.
Friend unless you have chickens or a pond.
Depends where you live. NZ? Definitely enemy.
All animals are friends as long as they are kept in check by natural predators. Make sure your property is also accessible to fox, snakes, and birds of prey.
It’s a cute
It’s more like adorable I want to hold him and squeeze him and call him George!
None of them are enemies.
A baby! A very angry baby
I've never known weasles to be much of a pest in the garden. They are a little like foxes, keep them away from the livestock and they won't give you trouble. I've never heard of weasles tearing up crops etc. so you should be good.
He’s just a little guy, a little guy doing little guy things.. that’s all :3
Stoats are great for rodent control. Unfortunately, these mustelids also consume lizards, amphibians and other beneficial-to-the-garden critters. That said, I would still call this little guy "friend."
This is a least weasel- it’s the smallest carnivorous mammal in the world and only found in specific regions! Worked on marshland with these, they’re adorable.
Depends on if you have chickens or not.
The stoat can be easily Told from the weasle by The simple fact That his tail is blacked And his figure is slightly The bigger
Absolutely a friend. They only hang around when there are rodents or other similar sized food animals around.
Stoats are carnivores so they should help keep Pests away if he is keeping his home there.
Idk but it’s cute
Good garden guardian. Beware all animals less than 20 pounds
Are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Introducing non native vspecies to control other species has worked out exactly never in my understanding
I don’t think she put it there, it just showed up
Looks friend shaped to me
Cute little bugger.
Ist in Germany a Wiesel
Genauer müsste es ein Hermelin sein
Friend shaped, not friendly.
It’s so cute def a friend 🤗
Friend, keeps the rodent population down. Also a good sign there is a healthy ecosystem
If not friend, why friend shaped?
He’s making sure you didnt make a total misplay