Picture note: Dancing stoat
In nature, no animal's life is easy, they run for food and water, to avoid predators, there is almost no leisure and pleasure time.
Among predators, in order to improve their predatory ability, some become poisonous, some have sharp and huge teeth and claws, some are born with "divine speed", and some are very good at camouflage.
However, there is no predator like today's protagonist, the stoat, who is a "drama master" who has to change his clothes (change his hair) twice a year to match his performance, and through this performance, he can confuse the prey and prey 10 times larger than himself.
Stoat – One of the least perishable species on Earth
Animals with "ferrets" in their names are generally not easy to mess with, they belong to the carnivores of the mustela family, which is the most member of the carnivorous family, these animals are often not very large, but they are fierce.
We are more familiar with the weasel (weasel), sometimes compared with the weasel and the larger cat, which shows that its combat effectiveness is still good.
The stoat's appearance is a bit silly from that of a weasel, but its tail is shorter.
Caption: Stoat and weasel
Speaking of appearance, it is more accurate to say that it resembles a weasel in spring and summer, but in autumn and winter, it looks a lot like a sable (also a member of the ferret family) (except for the southern stoat, which does not completely change into white fur).
Because the typical stoat will change its hair twice a year, once in spring and summer, once in autumn and winter, in fact, it switches from "weasel" to "sable", and then from "sable" to "weasel", but it is also different in spring and summer, mainly in the thickness of hair.
Picture note: Fur of the stoat
You may have heard of the "mink coat", the fur of the mink is very precious, as the fur, the fur of the stoat is also very precious, especially the "winter model", which is the symbol of european royalty.
It is conceivable that with the blessing of this potential value, human beings will do to them. Amazingly, however, they, like humans, are among the most endangered species on the IUCN Red List.
This is due to their ability to survive, or their ability to obtain food and reproduce is very strong.
The precious stoat skin causes them to be hunted and killed
The survival and behavior of the stoat
In fact, in many areas, the living areas of stoats and weasels are highly overlapping, but their food rarely overlaps, because weasels tend to choose smaller prey to attack, while stoats specialize in larger ones.
Its typical predator is rabbits, and stoats weighing between 90-450 grams are only one-tenth of a rabbit.
From the predator speculation, it is estimated that the stoat is much stronger than the weasel.
Illustration: Ferrets prey on rabbits
Although the stoat's prey is large, their esophagus is short, which means they can't eat much, so they are also a predator who stores food.
Storing food is uncommon for predators, and the average predator prefers to store food on the body (converted into fat), but the stoat is a scavenger player, so its storage of food is not surprising.
In European countries, it is believed that stoats have only two things in their life – eating and breeding.
It is almost the same thing, they are very greedy and tireless to eat them, will continue to chase after their prey for 8 kilometers, and will kill prey that is far higher than their food needs.
However, it is not easy to kill prey that is 10 times larger than yourself. You would never imagine that they are dancing war to confuse their opponents.
Picture note: A set of battle dances of the stoat
After a series of performances such as jumping backflips, pretending to be dead, spinning 360 degrees, tumbling, etc., it will slowly approach the prey, and the prey at this time will often be "hypnotized".
Note: Confuse prey with your tail
As can be seen from the image of the stoat above, even if they change into white "winter clothes", their tails will still have a distinct black color, and the purpose of this is to attract the attraction of prey from the rest of the body to the tail.
After reaching a certain distance, they will jump on the back of the prey, because their teeth are too short to bite the artery of the prey, so they mostly bite until the prey is shocked.
And for reproduction, they never stop, I mean they really haven't stopped reproducing, even when they are feeding their offspring.
Female stoats spend their entire lives in pregnancy and estrus, thanks to their delayed implantation, a skill I mentioned in a previous article about bear hibernation.
Simply put, female stoats will choose to implant embryos depending on the availability of food, and not only that, but female stoats can also fully absorb a cub if there is not enough food.
The most amazing thing is that after having this ability, the female stoat has just given birth to a child, and it will immediately enter the estrus period in order to get pregnant again.
Well, it's nothing to them, as long as after conception, it's entirely up to it to be born or not to be born.
Illustration: The stoat and its prey rabbit
Why choose larger prey?
For stoats, their choice of larger prey is actually beneficial to them.
I used weasels to prey on smaller prey to indicate that stoats are stronger, which is not entirely accurate, and stoats also prey on small prey, but they are likely to be inferior to weasels when preying on smaller prey.
But preying on large prey is different, and weasels may not dare to challenge, but stoats can directly take the nest of prey.
Due to their small size, they can directly enter the burrows of their prey to hunt, which is one of the reasons why they choose large prey.
Then they themselves are not good at digging holes, and after enjoying a perfect meal in the cave of their prey, they will take the cave for themselves.
It is rampant in New Zealand
As we said earlier, this guy is the typical predator of rabbits, so New Zealanders made a very bad decision as a result.
In the late nineteenth century, in order to control the flooding rabbits in New Zealand, they introduced stoats to New Zealand, but the rabbits were not controlled, and many rare and unique species in New Zealand were extinct, especially those that burrowed the ground.
Compared with those unsuspecting birds, it is estimated that rabbits that are 10 times larger than themselves are indeed not easy to catch, so they give up the difficult rabbits and pick birds, which makes them flooded in New Zealand.
Photo note: New Zealand's national bird, the Kiwi
Today, at least four species of birds have become extinct due to the stoat, and many birds have become endangered because of the ferret, including the Kiwi, The National Bird of New Zealand.
What the ferrets have done in New Zealand has led them to earn them the title of one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world.
In today's globalized world, invasive species are actually very many, but they can form very little destructive force, which shows how strong their survivability is.
Because of this, even if you wear a precious "fur coat", you are often hunted by humans, and you are not an endangered species until now.
At last
The stoat cubs are actually very fragile, unable to see or hear. In general, if there is a very fragile offspring in the animal kingdom, in order to improve the survival rate of the cubs, it is often male and female who raise offspring together, or "monogamous".
However, stoats are females who raise fragile offspring alone, so maybe they do have a very strong ability to obtain food!