Weasel
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225931756
2008-07-16T02:06:56Z
VegaDark
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/Kalac|Kalac]] ([[User talk:Kalac|talk]]) to last version by PMDrive1061
{{otheruses}}
{{Taxobox
| image = Mustela frenata.jpg
| image_caption = [[Long-tailed Weasel]]
| regnum = [[Animal]]ia
| phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]]
| classis = [[Mammal]]ia
| ordo = [[Carnivora]]
| familia = [[Mustelidae]]
| subfamilia = [[Mustelinae]]
| genus = '''''Mustela'''''
| genus_authority = [[Carolus Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1758
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
''[[Mustela africana]]''<br />
''[[Mustela altaica]]'' <br />
''[[Mustela erminea]]''<br />
''[[Mustela eversmannii]]''<br />
''[[Mustela felipei]]''<br />
''[[Mustela formosana]]''<br />
''[[Mustela frenata]]''<br />
''[[Mustela itatsi]]''<br />
''[[Mustela kathiah]]''<br />
''[[Mustela lutreola]]''<br />
''[[Mustela lutreolina]]''<br />
''[[Mustela nigripes]]''<br />
''[[Mustela nivalis]]''<br />
''[[Mustela nudipes]]''<br />
''[[Mustela putorius]]''<br />
''[[Mustela sibirica]]''<br />
''[[Mustela strigidorsa]]''<br />
''[[Mustela subpalmata]]''<br />
}}
'''Weasels''' are [[mammal]]s in the genus '''''Mustela''''' of the [[Mustelidae]] [[family (biology)|family]]. Originally, the name "weasel" was applied to one [[species]] of the genus, the [[Europe]]an form of the [[Least Weasel]] (''Mustela nivalis''). Early literary references to weasels, for example their common appearances in fables, refer to this species rather than to the [[genus]] as a whole, reflecting what is still the common usage in the [[United Kingdom]]. In technical discourse, however, as in American usage, the term "weasel" can refer to any member of the genus, or to the genus as a whole. Of the 16 extant species currently classified in the genus ''Mustela'', ten have "weasel" in their common name. Among those that do not are the [[stoat]] or ermine, the two species of [[mink]], and the [[polecat]]s or [[ferret]]s.
Weasels vary in length from fifteen to thirty-five centimeters (six to fourteen inches), and usually have a light brown upper coat, white belly and black fur at the tip of the tail; in many species, populations living at high latitudes [[moult]] to a white coat with black fur at the tip of the tail 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. As is typical of small carnivores, weasels have a reputation for cleverness and guile. They also have tails that can be anywhere from 22-33 [[centimetre|cm]] long and they use these to defend the food they get and to claim territory from other weasels. The average weasels weighs about 3kg-5kg.
Weasels feed on small mammals, and in former times were considered [[vermin]] since some species took [[poultry]] from farms, or [[rabbits]] from commercial warrens. Certain species of weasel and [[ferrets]], have been reported to perform the mesmerizing [[weasel war dance]], after fighting other creatures, or acquiring food from competing creatures. In folklore at least, this dance is particularly associated with the [[stoat]].
[[Collective noun]]s for a group of weasels include [[boogle]], gang, pack, and confusion.<ref>Bertrand, John. [http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/WATCHAPRIL07v2.pdf A Gulp of Cormorants???]. ''The Bosque Watch''. Volume 14, Number 2, April 2007. Retrieved on [[2007]]-[[07-24]].</ref>
Weasels are found all across the world except for [[Australia]] and neighbouring islands.
==Species==
The following information is according to the [[Integrated Taxonomic Information System]], and [[IUCN]] 2006 for the [[extinct]] ''Mustela macrodon''.
{|
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela africana]]'' || Desmarest, 1800 || Tropical weasel || South America
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela altaica]]'' || Pallas, 1811 || Mountain weasel || Europe & Northern Asia<br>Southern Asia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela erminea]]'' || Linnaeus, 1758 || Stoat<br>Ermine<br>Short-tailed weasel|| Australia (non-native)<br>Europe & Northern Asia <br>North America<br>Southern Asia (non-native)
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela eversmannii]]'' || Lesson, 1827 || Steppe polecat || Europe & Northern Asia<br>Southern Asia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela felipei]]'' || Izor and de la Torre, 1978 || Colombian weasel || South America
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela formosana]]'' || Lin et Harada, 1998 || Taiwan high-mountain least weasel || Taiwan
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela frenata]]'' || Lichtenstein, 1831 || Long-tailed weasel ||Middle America<br>North America<br>South America
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela itatsi]]'' || Temminck, 1844 || Japanese weasel ||Japan & Sakhalin in Russia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela kathiah]]'' || Hodgson, 1835 || Yellow-bellied weasel || Southern Asia
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela lutreola]]'' || (Linnaeus, 1761) || European mink || Europe & Northern Asia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela lutreolina]]'' || Robinson and Thomas, 1917 || Indonesian mountain weasel || Southern Asia
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela nigripes]]'' || (Audubon and Bachman, 1851) || Black-footed ferret || North America
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela nivalis]]'' || Linnaeus, 1766 || Least weasel || Europe & Northern Asia (non-native)<br>North America<br>Southern Asia (non-native)
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela nudipes]]'' || Desmarest, 1822 || Malayan weasel || Southern Asia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela putorius]]'' || Linnaeus, 1758 || European Polecat || Europe & Northern Asia
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela sibirica]]'' || Pallas, 1773 || Siberian weasel || Europe & Northern Asia<br>Southern Asia
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|''[[Mustela strigidorsa]]'' || Gray, 1855 || Black-striped weasel || Southern Asia
|-valign="top"
|''[[Mustela subpalmata]]'' || Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1833 || Egyptian weasel || Egypt
|-valign="top" style="background:#efefef;"
|}
<sup>1</sup> Europe & Northern Asia division excludes China.
==Popular culture references==
{{refimprove|date=February 2007}}
{{Shorten|date=January 2008}}
In [[English-language]] popular culture in particular, the term "weasel" is associated with devious characters. <br />
In the popular anime series [[Naruto]], [[Itachi Uchiha]]'s name means "weasel" in Japanese, representing the omens of death and bad luck.
: Jaques: I thank it. More! I pr'ythee more. I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. More! I pr'ythee, more. (''As You Like It'', [[William Shakespeare]], Act 2, Scene 5, Lines 9-13)<br />
: God bless you, sir!
: Polonius: My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.
: Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud, that 's almost in the shape of a camel?
: Polonius: By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed.
: Hamlet: Methinks, it is like a weasel.
: Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
: Hamlet: Or, like a whale?
: Polonius: Very like a whale.
: Hamlet: Then will I come to my mother by-and-by. — They fool me to the top of my bent. — I will come by-and-by.
: Polonius: I will say so.
: Hamlet: By-and-by is easily said. — Leave me, friends. (''Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 374-388)<br />
Many of these references tend to treat weasels as a species rather than a genus; for example, in [[Brian Jacques]]' ''[[Redwall]]'' series, weasels are one of many villainous races, along with rats and ferrets — although ferrets, biologically speaking, are a species of weasel. In the ''[[Dilbert]]'' cartoons, some of the most devious characters are portrayed as weasels or with weasel-like features. In reference to the weasel's reputation for [[skullduggery]], the phrase "[[weasel word]]s" means insincere or devious speech. <br />
: One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called ‘weasel words’. When a weasel sucks eggs the meat is sucked out of the egg. If you use a ‘weasel word’ after another, there is nothing left of the other. ([[Theodore Roosevelt]], speech in [[St Louis]], 31 May 1916) <br />
Elements of the [[News media (United States)|American media]] described the declaration by [[France]], [[Germany]], and [[Belgium]] against the [[2003]] invasion of [[Iraq]] as "The Axis Of Weasel", a pun on the "[[Axis of Evil]]". A popular cynical office poster states, "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines," meaning that office workers who stay low and act in their own self-interest may be less likely to rise in the organization but are also less likely to be destroyed as a result of office politics.
British popular-culture references to weasels are generally specifically to the Least Weasel. For example, [[Alan Lloyd]]'s novel ''Kine'', about a fictional war in the English countryside between weasels and the [[invasive species]] [[mink]], depicts the latter as sadistic, voracious invaders, giants in comparison to the weasels; in American usage, both species would be kinds of weasel. Similarly, in [[Kenneth Grahame]]'s popular story ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'' the villains are the weasels and the [[stoat]]s, again two species of weasel in American usage. Here everyday usage reflects the original European use of the word weasel for a single species.
A [[kamaitachi]] is, according to [[Japan]]ese [[Mythology|myth]], a malevolent, weasel-like [[wind]] [[spirit]], wielding a sharp [[sickle]]. They are nearly always depicted in groups of three individuals, and the three act together in their attacks; the first one hits the victim so that he/she falls to the ground, the second slashes with the sickle, and the third partially heals the wound. Also in [[Japanese mythology]], weasels represent bad luck and death.
A cartoon shown on [[Cartoon Network]] is entitled ''[[I Am Weasel]]'', whose main character is a weasel.
Two [[Pokémon]] are based on the weasel, [[Buizel]] and [[Floatzel]].
In the television series of [[Watership Down]], a weasel was a sole antagonist to the rabbits of Watership Down in the second and ninth episode of the first season. Other weasels appear later in the third season of the series.
Music parodist [[Weird Al Yankovic]] wrote a song entitled [[Weasel Stomping Day]], which was later made into a short video shown in an episode of [[Robot Chicken]]. It depicts weasels being stomped to death.
A section of [[Weird Al Yankovic]]'s song "[[Albuquerque (song)|Albuquerque]]" details his encounter with a box of "one dozen starving crazed weasels" acquired from a donut shop.
[[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]] is the title of a [[1970]] album by [[Frank Zappa]], wherein the musicians "employ frenetic and chaotic improvisation characteristic of avant-garde free jazz" reminiscent of the [[weasel war dance]]
The owner of the specialist East London sauna, 'Chariots', is Steven 'The Weasel' Burns.
Some of the most famous modern haikus end with the line, "Weasels rend their flesh."
<!-- Please do not add to this section music, books, television shows, films, etc. where weasels are merely mentioned or depicted. For the use of a weasel in popular culture to be notable, it should be the main subject of the work. -->
==References==
{{commons|category:Mustela|Mustela}}
{{wikispecies|Mustela}}
{{wiktionarypar|weasel}}
* {{ITIS|ID=180552|taxon=''Mustela''|year=2007|date=24 July}}
* Nowak, Ronald M., and Ernest P. Walker. ''Walker's Carnivores of the World''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801880335, ISBN 0801880327.
{{reflist}}
{{Mustelidae nav}}
[[Category:Weasels| ]]
[[Category:Carnivores]]
[[Category:Fauna of Southeast Asia]]
[[Category:Mammals of Asia]]
[[Category:Mammals of Europe]]
[[Category:Mammals of North America]]
[[Category:Mustelinae]]
[[ar:ابن عرس]]
[[an:Mustela]]
[[ca:Mustela]]
[[cs:Mustela]]
[[de:Mustela]]
[[es:Mustela]]
[[eo:Musteloj]]
[[fa:راسو]]
[[fr:Mustela]]
[[ko:족제비속]]
[[it:Mustela]]
[[he:חמוס]]
[[lt:Šeškai]]
[[nl:Mustela]]
[[ja:イタチ]]
[[pl:Łasica]]
[[pt:Mustela]]
[[ru:Хорьки]]
[[simple:Weasel]]
[[fi:Mustela]]
[[sv:Mustela]]
[[th:วีเซิล]]
[[vi:Chi Chồn]]
[[tr:Gelincik (hayvan)]]
[[zh:鼬属]]