| European Polecat | ||||||||||||||
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 European Polecats
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| Mustela putorius (Linnaeus, 1758) |
- This article is about a species of mammal referred to as "Polecat". Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for Year 1758 ( MDCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common For other uses, see Polecat (disambiguation).
The European Polecat (Mustela putorius), also known as a fitch, is a member of the Mustelidae family, and is related to the stoats, otters, weasels and minks. Mustelidae or Mustelids (from Latin mustela, Weasel) commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivorous Mammals Otters are semi- aquatic (or in one case aquatic) fish-eating Mammals The otter subfamily Lutrinae forms part of the family Weasels are Mammals in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. There are two living species of " mink," the American Mink and the European Mink. Polecats are dark brown with a lighter bandit-like mask across the face, pale yellow underbody fur, a long tail and short legs. They are somewhat larger than weasels, weighing between 0. 7 kg for females to 1. 7 kg for males, but smaller than otters.
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Range, habitat and ecology
Polecats are found throughout Europe. [1] They are mainly nocturnal and are found in woodlands, farmlands and wetlands. They often make dens in stream banks or under tree roots. Almost entirely carnivorous, they feed largely on small mammals such as voles and rats and, seasonally, on frogs and toads. A vole is a small Rodent resembling a Mouse but with a stouter body a shorter hairy tail a slightly rounder head and smaller ears and eyes Rats are various medium sized long-tailed Rodents of the superfamily Muroidea This article is about the block cipher algorithm For the ultrafast laser pulse measurement technique see Frequency-resolved optical gating. A toad can refer to a number of Species of Amphibians in the order Anura. Small birds and insects are a much smaller component of their diet. [2] They require a home range of about a square kilometer. The pattern of polecat predation on frogs was found to be sex selective and predation by polecats is found to influence sex ratio, male abundance and sexual conflict in a frog mating system, restricting the opportunity for multiple mating. [3]
Reproduction
Though polecats are chiefly polygynous, females can show polyandry and the sexual conflict aspect of the mating system can change with environmental conditions. Polygyny (which comes from neo- Greek: πολύ poly "many" + γυνή gyny "woman" is a specific form of Polygamy, In Social anthropology and Sociobiology, polyandry ( Greek: poly - many andros - man refers to a form of polygamous Sexual conflict occurs when the two Sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning Reproduction, leading to Evolutionary arms race Sexual conflict may result in sexually antagonistic co-evolution, in which one sex evolves a "manipulative" character which is countered by a "resistance" trait in the other sex. Sexual conflict occurs when the two Sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning Reproduction, leading to Evolutionary arms race Polecats (mainly dark phenotype) are able to hybridise with the rare European mink and have fertile hybrids. The European Mink, Mustela lutreola, is a European member of the Mustelidae family found in some regions of Spain, France, [4] In some parts of England the abandoning of domestic ferrets has led to ferret-polecat hybrids living in the wild that are almost indistinguishable from pure polecats. The ferret is a domestic Mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo.
Other species
Other species of polecat include the Steppe Polecat (M. The Steppe Polecat ( Mustela eversmanii) is a small Carnivore and is one of several species of Weasel that belong to the genus Mustela eversmanni) and the European Mink (M. The European Mink, Mustela lutreola, is a European member of the Mustelidae family found in some regions of Spain, France, lutreola). Most zoologists believe that the domestic ferret (M. The ferret is a domestic Mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. putorius furo) is descended from the European Polecat, or possibly from a hybrid of the European and steppe varieties. The Zorilla, also called the striped polecat (Ictonyx striatus), lives in subsaharan Africa.
References
- ^ Mapmaker at european-mammals. org, accessed November 2007 [1]
- ^ Lodé, T. (2000) Functional response and area-restricted search in a predator: seasonal exploitation of anurans by the European polecat, Mustela putorius Austral Ecology 25 (3), 223–231.
- ^ Lodé, T. , Hovleck, M. J. , LesBarreres, D. & Pagano, A. (2004). Sex-biased predation by polecats influences the mating system of frogs. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, (suppl. ), Biology Letters: 271 (S6): S399-S401
- ^ Lodé T. , Guiral G. & Peltier D. (2005) European mink-polecat hybridisation events: hazards from natural process ? Journal of Heredity 96 (2): 1-8
- Mustelid Specialist Group (1996). Mustela putorius. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List) created in 1963 is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 9 May 2006.
External links
- Waarneming.nl Pictures, sightings, distribution maps of European polecats in the Netherlands.
Gallery
.jpg/120px-Brehms_Het_Leven_der_Dieren_Zoogdieren_Orde_4_Bunzing_(Putorius_foetidus).jpg) Painting of Putorius foetidus (Mustella putorius) |
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