I know there are weasles in Pa. but I was wandering if they get there winter white phase fur here or only in colder climates?
Thanks!
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i have caught them here half white and brown...in central pa...not very often but i have causght them with white. never all white yet
In the 1948-1952 Biological Survey of Pennsylvania, when weasels were much more abundant, trappers in the winter months found a difference in the percentage of weasels that turn white. At that time, they found that the long-tailed weasel, Mustela frenata, remained all brown 5 out of 6 specimens. However, Mustela erminae turned only had brown color roughly 1/6 of the time, mostly turning white in winter. I have trapped both species in PA and found all the long-tailed all brown and the short-tailed all white. I never caught any least weasels though "Ratskinner" caught one I am aware of (If my memory serves me right).
So there are two species in PA. the short tail & the long tail? but how do you tell the two apart? is the tail length the only difference?
Is one only concidered an ermine?
You guys seem full of info!
thanks!
There are actually three species including the least weasel. The easiest way to tell for me is primarily size - but also there is sexual differences probably due to partitioning of the food source. The size ranges I have seen are as such in Pennsylvania. The long-tailed weasel male can be up to 12 inches from nose to base of tail when adult - the female may be 10 at best. The male short-tailed at its' largest could almost come to 10 inches but probably only averages 9 inches nose to tail base. The female is smaller maybe to only 8 inches. The least weasel male is smaller yet, and a female least might only be 5-6 inches and no larger in diameter than a medium thumb. Tail length also is quite different.
I would purchase the PA Mmmal book put out by the Game Commission, or that published a few years ago by Joseph Merritt. Both Texts were essentially written by Mammalogists from the Carnegie Museum in Natural History, a fine Institution in which to work.
When I was about 14 (25 years ago) I saw a white weasle while deer hunting. It was all white except that the tail was black. It was really small. I caught a weasle one time in a trap, when I was a kid. It was brown and much larger than the white one I saw while hunting. I was hunting in south western Pa. It was only a few feet away. So I know they live in Pa. I only ever saw one, but they exist.