I am so jealous … can you imagine having a pet weasel? No, neither can I
However … some people do!
I had an email through my site from a lady in the UK who was very thrilled at the information I had on my Least Weasel page and she was asking me if I knew if female weasels showed the same signs of coming on heat as female ferrets do. I told her that I knew nothing personally about weasels, since they aren’t in Oz, and that all the information I had put on my page had been gathered from books or the Internet.
A tame European eagle owl spotted a poor, unfortunate weasel in the undergrowth while flying around in the aviary at the Mere Down Falconry in Wiltshire, swooped down, stood on the mustelid and then ate it.
Stewart Canham, who’s an amateur wildlife photographer, was there and managed to get a series of shots of the owl with the weasel in its mouth. Great photography but I felt terrible for the little weasel – totally in the wrong place at the wrong time!
I know very little about owls but was really surprised to read that this type, the European eagle owl, is a fearsome predator that will catch rabbits and even small deers out in the wild! Small deers? Good grief! I can’t imagine an owl that large somehow. This particular owl, named Poppy, weighs 5lbs (2.27kg) and has a wing span of 5 feet (1.52m).
A friend here in Perth keeps her ferrets outside in their very secure, ferret proofed backyard and she says she’s paranoid about making sure that all her babies are locked up in their cages under cover when dusk comes as she’s worried about owls taking them. Apparently that happened to another ferret owner many years ago – she lost a little white ferret in the early evening and she was certain that it had been captured by an owl, as there was absolutely no trace of her girl and there was no way she could have got out of the garden.
So … if you keep your ferrets outside, make sure they’re safe and sound so that the owls don’t get them once evening comes!
I thought the pine marten was a bit of a stretch but when I wrote my post on March 3 I had no idea what type of mustelid the little fellow that was called a “ferret” was.
I’ve been researching the long tailed weasel to add to my site and almost fell over when I saw a photograph of one.
I must say that I find it fascinating to learn so much about mustelids as I add pages about them to my site. They are such a wonderfully diverse group of animals and all so different!
I found a short clip about weasels made by the same Russian guy who made the videos of those Siberian weasels a while ago.
I was absolutely fascinated to see how tiny those weasels were … how old do you think they could be? I would think that they were probably somewhere in the region of 8-10 weeks old but could be way off.
You read about how small weasels are but I find it so interesting to see in real life how minute they actually are!
About halfway through the clip you’ll notice a little mouse climbing up the side of the basket and the two weasels sniff and ignore it! I hope that wasn’t their lunch!! Eeeuuww
Philip found this game and bought it for our granddaughter, Imogen, for Christmas.
My eyes lit up when I saw it — what a perfect present for ME!!! I could go out and get Imogen a boring old Barbie doll instead but He Who Must Be Obeyed wouldn’t allow it.
Boo hiss!
Still … maybe I can persuade Imogen to leave the game at her grandma’s house so that she can play it when she comes over to stay? Heh heh heh – talk about me being a silly “wily” weasel
