The Mustela
ermine otherwise known as the ermine or short-tailed weasel has to be the
most adorable animal from Marchand’s book. However the ermine is not as
friendly as it might look, for it is a fierce predator. The ermine is
carnivorous mammal eating mostly voles, mice, and occasionally snowshoe
hares. How can this cute thing eat another cute thing? That is just nature for
you. Ermines are known to kill more than it can eat at once and storing what it
cannot finish. They do this because ermines have to eat 30-40% of their body
weight each day to survive living in cold temperatures. Producing body heat
takes up a lot of energy and ermines cannot be certain that they will find food
when they are hungry again. Ermines kill their prey by biting the base of the
skull until its prey dies. It has been observed that ermines suck the blood from the wounds after
their prey is dead.
Ermines
are pretty small about 9-12 inches in length. The females are approximately
one-half to one-third the size of males. The ermine has a long, slender body,
with a flat triangular head, and short legs. During the summer the fur on the
upper parts of the body are brown and the lower parts are white. During the
winter the fur on the entire ermine is white except for the black tip of its
tail. This is because hormones turn
off the production of melanin resulting in white fur and it also allows for the
ermine to camouflage. Ermines are asocial during most of their lives except for
when they mate. The gestation period for ermines is actually pretty long
lasting for 280 days. The ermine mates in late summer to mid-winter. The
embryos undergo initial development for about two weeks and then a long dormant
period occurs. Once it is almost spring, the embryo becomes implanted in the
uterus and the ermine is officially pregnant. Ermines doe this because their offspring will have
a higher survival rate if they are born in the spring. Surprisingly ermines
survive for only about 12-15 months! 
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