It’s hard to imagine anything cuter and perkier in the winter woods than an ermine. This little weasel, Mustela erminea to scientists, is also known as the short-tailed weasel, for reasons obvious when you get to know its cousin, the long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata). The ermine’s cylindrical body is not much thicker than the average dinner sausage. The long-tailed weasel (which also turns white in winter) is chunkier and bigger overall. Whereas the ermine’s tail tends to measure about a third the length of the animal’s head and trunk, the long-tailed weasel’s tail tends to extend half or a little more the body length.
We attract ermines to our bird feeding station by putting out chicken carcasses once a week. Carcass feeding begins in late November after black bears have settled into their dens for winter, and in late winter, as the time nears for bears to emerge, we stop. We aim to feed songbirds, the occasional barred owl, ermines, and long-tailed weasels tidbits of meat, not big and potentially dangerous carnivores. The next photo shows an ermine in its brown warm-weather coat, trying to make off with a carcass. We chain the chicken down to the platform to prevent weasels and owls from making off with it.
What follows are a few more portraits of an ermine that visited us in January, 2021. In the final image, the ermine looks like it’s singing. White Christmas, perhaps?
