Weasel
Long-tailed Weasel
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Mustelidae Subfamily: Mustelinae Genus: Mustela Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Mustela africana Mustela altaica Mustela erminea Mustela eversmannii Mustela felipei Mustela formosana Mustela frenata Mustela itatsi Mustela kathiah Mustela lutreola Mustela lutreolina Mustela nigripes Mustela nivalis Mustela nudipes Mustela putorius Mustela sibirica Mustela strigidorsa Mustela subpalmata

Weasels are mammals in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. The Long-tailed Weasel ( Mustela frenata) is the most widely distributed Mustelid in the New World. Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands The diverse order Carnivora (kɑrˈnɪvərə or sometimes /ˌkɑrnɪˈvɔərə/ from Latin carō (stem carn-) "flesh" + vorāre Mustelidae or Mustelids (from Latin mustela, Weasel) commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivorous Mammals Mustelinae is a Polyphyletic Subfamily of family Mustelidae and includes Wolverines Weasels Ferrets 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 The Mountain Weasel, also known as the Pale Weasel is a species of Weasel that lives in mountainous parts of Asia from Kazakhstan, Tibet The Steppe Polecat ( Mustela eversmanii) is a small Carnivore and is one of several species of Weasel that belong to the genus Mustela Colombian Weasel ( Mustela felipei) also known as Don Felipe's Weasel, is a very rare species of Weasel only known with certainty from the Taiwan high mountain least weasel ( Mustela formosana) is newly described species endemic to the mountains of Taiwan The Long-tailed Weasel ( Mustela frenata) is the most widely distributed Mustelid in the New World. UserPolbot. --> The Yellow-bellied Weasel ( Mustela kathiah) is a species of Mammal in the Mustelidae The European Mink, Mustela lutreola, is a European member of the Mustelidae family found in some regions of Spain, France, The Indonesian Mountain Weasel, Mustela lutreolina is endemic to the islands of Java and Sumatra, Indonesia at elevations over 1000 metres The Black-footed Ferret ( Mustela nigripes) is a small carnivorous North American Mammal closely related to the Steppe Polecat of Russia The Least Weasel ( Mustela nivalis) is the smallest member of the Genus Mustela, and indeed in the entire order UserPolbot. -->The Malayan Weasel ( Mustela nudipes) is a species of Mammal in the Mustelidae The European Polecat ( Mustela putorius) also known as a fitch, is a member of the Mustelidae family and is related to the Stoats Otters The Siberian Mountain Weasel, also known as the Siberian Weasel, Kolinsky or Himalayan Weasel, is a rust coloured member of the Weasel family Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands Mustelidae or Mustelids (from Latin mustela, Weasel) commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivorous Mammals In Biological classification, family ( Latin Originally, the name "weasel" was applied to one species of the genus, the European form of the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis). In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. The Least Weasel ( Mustela nivalis) is the smallest member of the Genus Mustela, and indeed in the entire order 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. A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located 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 polecats or ferrets. There are two living species of " mink," the American Mink and the European Mink. The ferret is a domestic Mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo.

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. In Biology, moulting (or molting, also known as shedding or for some species Ecdysis) signifies the manner in which an animal routinely 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 cm long and they use these to defend the food they get and to claim territory from other weasels. A centimetre ( American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one hundredth

Weasels feed on small mammals, and in former times were considered vermin since some species took poultry from farms, or rabbits from commercial warrens. Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of Disease. Poultry is the category of Domesticated Birds which some humans keep for the purpose of collecting their eggs, or kill for their Meat and/or Rabbits are small Mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world 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. The ferret is a domestic Mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited Ferrets and Weasels The war dance usually follows play or the successful capture of a Toy In folklore at least, this dance is particularly associated with the stoat.

Collective nouns for a group of weasels include boogle, gang, pack, and confusion. In Linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects where "objects" can be People, Animals Inanimate things ^[1]

Weasels are found all across the world except for Australia and neighbouring islands. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Species

The following information is according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System, and IUCN 2006 for the extinct Mustela macrodon. Integrated Taxonomic Information System ( ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the Taxonomy of biological Species In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa.

Mustela africana	Desmarest, 1800	Tropical weasel	South America
Mustela altaica	Pallas, 1811	Mountain weasel	Europe & Northern Asia Southern Asia
Mustela erminea	Linnaeus, 1758	Stoat Ermine Short-tailed weasel	Australia (non-native) Europe & Northern Asia North America Southern Asia (non-native)
Mustela eversmannii	Lesson, 1827	Steppe polecat	Europe & Northern Asia Southern Asia
Mustela felipei	Izor and de la Torre, 1978	Colombian weasel	South America
Mustela formosana	Lin et Harada, 1998	Taiwan high-mountain least weasel	Taiwan
Mustela frenata	Lichtenstein, 1831	Long-tailed weasel	Middle America North America South America
Mustela itatsi	Temminck, 1844	Japanese weasel	Japan & Sakhalin in Russia
Mustela kathiah	Hodgson, 1835	Yellow-bellied weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela lutreola	(Linnaeus, 1761)	European mink	Europe & Northern Asia
Mustela lutreolina	Robinson and Thomas, 1917	Indonesian mountain weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela nigripes	(Audubon and Bachman, 1851)	Black-footed ferret	North America
Mustela nivalis	Linnaeus, 1766	Least weasel	Europe & Northern Asia (non-native) North America Southern Asia (non-native)
Mustela nudipes	Desmarest, 1822	Malayan weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela putorius	Linnaeus, 1758	European Polecat	Europe & Northern Asia
Mustela sibirica	Pallas, 1773	Siberian weasel	Europe & Northern Asia Southern Asia
Mustela strigidorsa	Gray, 1855	Black-striped weasel	Southern Asia
Mustela subpalmata	Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1833	Egyptian weasel	Egypt

¹ Europe & Northern Asia division excludes China. The Mountain Weasel, also known as the Pale Weasel is a species of Weasel that lives in mountainous parts of Asia from Kazakhstan, Tibet The Steppe Polecat ( Mustela eversmanii) is a small Carnivore and is one of several species of Weasel that belong to the genus Mustela Colombian Weasel ( Mustela felipei) also known as Don Felipe's Weasel, is a very rare species of Weasel only known with certainty from the Taiwan high mountain least weasel ( Mustela formosana) is newly described species endemic to the mountains of Taiwan The Long-tailed Weasel ( Mustela frenata) is the most widely distributed Mustelid in the New World. UserPolbot. --> The Yellow-bellied Weasel ( Mustela kathiah) is a species of Mammal in the Mustelidae The European Mink, Mustela lutreola, is a European member of the Mustelidae family found in some regions of Spain, France, The Indonesian Mountain Weasel, Mustela lutreolina is endemic to the islands of Java and Sumatra, Indonesia at elevations over 1000 metres The Black-footed Ferret ( Mustela nigripes) is a small carnivorous North American Mammal closely related to the Steppe Polecat of Russia The Least Weasel ( Mustela nivalis) is the smallest member of the Genus Mustela, and indeed in the entire order UserPolbot. -->The Malayan Weasel ( Mustela nudipes) is a species of Mammal in the Mustelidae The European Polecat ( Mustela putorius) also known as a fitch, is a member of the Mustelidae family and is related to the Stoats Otters The Siberian Mountain Weasel, also known as the Siberian Weasel, Kolinsky or Himalayan Weasel, is a rust coloured member of the Weasel family

Popular culture references

In English-language popular culture in particular, the term "weasel" is associated with devious characters. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

In the popular anime series Naruto, Itachi Uchiha's name means "weasel" in Japanese, representing the omens of death and bad luck. is an ongoing Japanese Manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an Anime adaptation This is a list of antagonists in the Naruto Anime and Manga series

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)

God bless you, sir!

Polonius: My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. William Shakespeare ( baptised

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)

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. (James Brian Jacques (pronounced "Jakes" (born June 15, 1939) is an English author, best Redwall is a series of Fantasy novels by Brian Jacques. It is the title of the first book of the series published in 1986 the name of the Abbey In the Dilbert cartoons, some of the most devious characters are portrayed as weasels or with weasel-like features. Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American Comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. In reference to the weasel's reputation for skullduggery, the phrase "weasel words" means insincere or devious speech. Weasel words is an informal term for words that are ambiguous and cannot be substantiated by facts

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)

Elements of the 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". Theodore Roosevelt (ˈroʊzəvɛlt October 27 1858 January 6 1919 also known as T Mass media are the means through which information is transmitted to a large audience This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. Definition President Bush's exact statement was as follows second goal is to prevent regimes (terrorist that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and 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. Introduced species|Weed Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions There are two living species of " mink," the American Mink and the European Mink. Similarly, in Kenneth Grahame's popular story The Wind in the Willows the villains are the weasels and the stoats, again two species of weasel in American usage. Kenneth Grahame ( March 8, 1859 – July 6, 1932) was a British Writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows The Wind in the Willows is a classic of Children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Here everyday usage reflects the original European use of the word weasel for a single species.

A kamaitachi is, according to Japanese myth, a malevolent, weasel-like wind spirit, wielding a sharp sickle. Kamaitachi (窮奇 sometimes also 鎌鼬 is a Japanese Yōkai, most common in the Kōshinetsu region. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Wind is the flow of Air or other Gases that compose an Atmosphere (including but not limited to the Earth's) The English word " spirit " comes from the Latin " spiritus " (breath A sickle is a hand-held Agricultural Tool with a curved Blade typically used for harvesting grain crop or cutting grass for Hay. 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. Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculture-based Folk religion.

A cartoon shown on Cartoon Network is entitled I Am Weasel, whose main character is a weasel. I Am Weasel is an American Animated television series, created by David Feiss and broadcast on the Cartoon Network.

Two Pokémon are based on the weasel, Buizel and Floatzel. If you came here to express your personal opinion about Pokémon please go somewhere else At the core of the multi-billion dollar Pokémon Media franchise of various electronic games, ongoing anime, several manga series, At the core of the multi-billion dollar Pokémon Media franchise of various electronic games, ongoing anime, several manga series,

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. Watership Down is the first and most successful Novel by British author Richard Adams. 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. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist "Weasel Stomping Day" is a song by American parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic, which appears on his 2006 album Straight Outta Lynwood Robot Chicken is an Emmy -Award Winning American Stop motion animated television series created by Seth Green and Matthew It depicts weasels being stomped to death.

A section of Weird Al Yankovic's song "Albuquerque" details his encounter with a box of "one dozen starving crazed weasels" acquired from a donut shop. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist "Albuquerque" is the last song of "Weird Al" Yankovic 's Running With Scissors album

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. Weasels Ripped My Flesh is an Album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in 1970 (see 1970 in music) Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21 1940 – December 4 1993 was an American Composer, Electric guitarist Record producer and Film director The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited Ferrets and Weasels The war dance usually follows play or the successful capture of a Toy

References

• Mustela (TSN 180552). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Integrated Taxonomic Information System ( ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the Taxonomy of biological Species Retrieved on 24 July 2007. Events 1132 - Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
• Nowak, Ronald M. , and Ernest P. Walker. Walker's Carnivores of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801880335, ISBN 0801880327.

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