adult ermine | can climb | |
can swim | |
changes colour in spring and fall because of changing duration of daylight | |
eats mice, shrews, hares, porcupines, birds, squirrels, fish, rats, voles, ground squirrels, pocket gophers, chipmunks, pikas, mountain beavers, snakes, frogs, earthworms | |
has breeding season early summer | |
has colour brown on top and white below in summer, white in winter, black tipped tail | |
has part anal scent glands | |
has part long, slender body | |
has part short, oval ears | |
has part small mouth | |
is nocturnal | |
is a kind of ermine | |
kills prey by grabbing it around the shoulders and biting through the neck at the base of the skull | |
moults in March and April and again in October and November | |
stores extra food in larders | |
ermine | depends on mice | |
has distribution all of Canada | |
has habitat boreal coniferous forests, mixed forests, tundra, meadow edges, shrubby river banks, lakeshores | |
has name in French hermine | |
has picture | |
has scientific name Mustella erminea | |
is curious | |
is also called stoat | |
is killed by coyotes, badgers, foxes, hawks, owls, martens, wolverines, fishers, humans | |
is killed for fur by humans | |
lives in hollow log, under building, in burrow of mouse, ground squirrel, chipmunk or pocket gopher | |
makes nest of fur, feathers, grass, leaves | |
weasel | has Family name Family Mustelidae | |
carnivore | has Order name Order Carnivora | |
is carnivorous or omnivorous | |
mammal | is warm-blooded | |
may catch rabies | |