Last week’s article was about Willy the Weasel and other weasels that I encountered in my 35 years as a wildlife officer.

A young weasel will become fertile at or about six weeks of age. This occurs during the summer months. By fall the young are on their own, and most females are pregnant. Since breeding occurs during the summer, you would think the female would have her young in the fall.

In doing this, she would have 4-12 extra mouths to feed during the harsh winter months. Not so. The weasel, like a lot of animals, has delayed implantation. The fertilized eggs go through a short period of development and then lie dormant within the female until spring.

In the spring, the developed eggs attach themselves to the uterine walls, and 25 days later the young are born. The female usually makes her nest underground, making it very hard to locate a nest. One time I received a call that a weasel nest was found when the caller was rooting through an old woodpile. He pulled a board up and discovered a female with six young.

The female took off, leaving the young. So he put the board back. After I received the call, I grabbed my camera, wanting to get a picture of this unusual sight. However, by the time I got there and removed the board, the young were gone. It was quite clear the female did not like the interruption and moved her young.

You would think with this breeding of young females in the nest that weasels would be plentiful. However, the average life span of a weasel is only 18 months. At one time weasels were more abundant than they are today. When people were raising chickens and other livestock around their homes, weasels were attracted. Also, when people burned wood, instead of gas and oil, they had woodpiles which attracted mice, which in turn attracted weasels.

So earlier in the century, weasels were living closer to man than they are today. Weasels are active all year round. It has a small slender body, which enables it to get into very small areas, helpful when trying to locate food. However, this long slender body is a liability during the winter months. Its shape puts most of its body surface in contact with the cold air. A short, fat body makes out much better than a long, slender one does during the winter.

The short tailed weasel turns white during the winter in its northern range. As I stated, in this white fur coat, it is called an ermine. This white coat protects it from other predators and helps ensure it does not become a meal for some bird or animal. It also helps the weasel blend in with the snowy background so it can get closer to its prey.

When it is wearing this white coat, the tip of the tail remains black. The tip of the tail is black in the summer coat, also. In one experiment at a North Carolina university, a tethered red-tailed hawk was used to attack weasels. The hawk appeared to hone in on the black tipped tail instead of the body of the weasel. This black tipped tail appeared to make the hawk miss and allow the weasel to escape. Of course, during winters of no snow, the white weasel stands out against the dark background. It then becomes an easy meal for both ground and flying predators.

The weasel has an incredible heartbeat with over 100 times per minute. This heart beat burns a lot of energy and creates a need for the weasel to eat a lot of food. A weasel needs half of its own body weight in food every day. They find most of their food among the rodent population: mice, moles, voles, make up most of their diet. At one time, when every rural home had a chicken coup out back, weasels were man’s arch enemy. Once inside the coup, the weasel would kill, kill, kill.

One article I read said the weasel is the only animal that kills for the pure joy of killing. This attitude gives the weasel a bad name. The weasel is just like a lot of predators and will put in a stockpile of food, a normal reaction for a hungry predator. But when the prey is man’s chickens, the weasel does not get time to stockpile or return to feed on the carcasses. When he returns, he is greeted with a trap or a gun.

The myth that weasels are evil has given them a bum rap. When we call someone a weasel we usually mean they are a liar, a sneak, a cheat or someone who really can’t be trusted. Someone you don’t like you might call a “blood sucking weasel.” The weasel kills by biting its victim in the neck. Therefore, many people say it sucks blood.

A weasel has great courage. It will stand up to birds and animals that are a lot bigger than they are. The weasel is persistent, and it keeps fighting until it dies or its opponent is killed.

Some species of voles, moles and mice breed all year-round. They have a litter every month of the year, with six young pe litter. The young are ready to breed within a month. Rats and mice are also prolific.

If left unchecked, the mice population would reach 235,000 in one year from one female. Rats, in five years, could multiply to 940 billion from one pregnant female. It’s good we have animals like weasels. They keep a check on the rodent populations.