Species: Mustela erminea
Ermine
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Carnivora
Family
Mustelidae
Genus
Mustela
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Short-tailed Weasel - Stoat - hermine
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Carnivores
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Carnivora - Mustelidae - Mustela - See Eger (1990) for patterns of geographic skull variation in Nearctic populations.
Ecology and Life History
Short General Description
A medium-sized weasel.
Migration
true - false - false
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Mainly small mammals, and occasionally other small vertebrates and insects.
Reproduction Comments
Breeds July-August. Gestation lasts 255 days. Litter of 4-9 (average 6-7) is born mid-April to early May. Females are sexually mature in 3-4 months, males in 12 months (probably). Delayed implantation.
Ecology Comments
Home range averages 12-16 ha (Jackson 1961). In southern Ontario, density over 95 ha averaged 6 per sq km; home range averaged 20-25 ha for males, smaller for females; most individuals remained on study site less than 1 year (Simms 1979).
Length
34
Weight
182
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
2008-01-04
Global Status Last Changed
1996-11-18
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
Circumboreal range throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, from Greenland and the Canadian and Siberian Arctic islands south to about 35°N (King 1983, Fagerstone 1987). In North America, this species is found throughout Alaska and Canada south through most of the northern United States to central California, northern Arizona (Berna 1991), northern New Mexico, Iowa, the Great Lakes region, Pennsylvania, and northern Virginia (Fagerstone 1987).