Part 45

Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson divide their data into two categories, winter and spring. Items recorded in winter but not in spring are house mouse, tree sparrow, and grasshopper. Items recorded only in spring were pocket gopher and least weasel. The samples of cottontail and least weasel all were from the scats of one large male weasel. Of a total of 14 pheasants, 24 quail and 35 cottontails on the 160 acres involved in the study only two cottontails appear to have been killed by the weasels--really by one weasel of four which lived on the area.

Food items taken from the nests (3) and adjacent caches of food in the dens, were as follows: meadow mouse, 30; short-tailed shrew, 4; pocket gopher, 2; deer mouse, 2; least weasel, 1; tree sparrow, 1. The authors remark that the abundance of several prey species does not cause the weasels to ignore the shrews which are said to be distasteful to carnivores.

Two horned larks, apparently killed by weasels, were found on the 160 acre area studied; the horned larks were not in caches of food, nor were remains of horned larks found in scats.

Dearborn (1932:34, 37) for Michigan, on the basis of contents of (37?) intestinal tracts and "feces collected partly in winter and partly in summer" found that, by frequency of occurrence, mammals comprised 83 per cent of the food, birds 10 per cent and insects 7 per cent. Frequency indices for the genera of mammals in percentages of food items of all kinds were as follows: Microtus, 31 per cent; Peromyscus, 24 per cent; Sylvilagus, 14 per cent; Sorex, 7 per cent; Blarina, 5 per cent; Scalopus, 2 per cent.

Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), for the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba, record that on October 3, 1913, a weasel was seen to take a field mouse down a hole. They add (op. cit.: 147) that "Once while ploughing, we observed a Long-tailed Weasel carrying a field mouse. . . ." Ingles (1939:253, 254), in June, 1938, near Mt. Shasta City, California, found an adult and four young weasels which fed on several Microtus montanus montanus. Green (1936) in May, in Gratiot County, Michigan, in the vicinity of a nest in which there were four young weasels, found "several" dead Microtus. Hamilton (1933:330) records that in New York State a male weasel, on April 5, 1932, at Ithaca, had eaten a Microtus and that in May, 1927, a female weasel was seen carrying a Microtus in its mouth.

Hamilton's (1933:333) study of the contents of the digestive tracts of bodies of weasels obtained from fur trappers and fur buyers enabled him to publish the following "Frequency Indices of Mammal Genera in Fall and Winter Food of 163 Mustela noveboracensis": Microtus, 33.6 per cent; Sylvilagus, 17.3; mammals undetermined to genus but principally mice, 17.1; Peromyscus, 11.3; Rattus, 9.1; Blarina, 5.9; Sciurus, 2.7; Tamias, 1.0; Condylura, 0.8; Ondatra, 0.8.

Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:233, 234) quote W. Fry concerning a weasel which reared six young at Giant Forest, California, in 1919, as follows: "This parent weasel, after the birth of her young, remained at the premises for a period of thirty-seven days; during which time, from actual count, the following numbers of mammal species fell victim to her: mice [genera not specified] 78; gophers 27; moles 2; chipmunks 34; wood rats 3; ground squirrels 4. This is a total of 148 animals for the . . . thirty-seven days . . . not a bird was captured during the period."

Rats (Rattus).--Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), on the farm at Treesbank, Manitoba, record a long-tailed weasel, on July 2, 1918, running away from the farm buildings carrying a rat; July 11, 1919, "Two longicaudas . . . have been seen running off with rats on several occasions."; July 11, 1920, "There are two large weasels about the buildings[;]. . . . Each has been noted with rats and this afternoon one of them was seen running into the woods carrying a rat, followed by two excited swallows." The authors (op. cit.:147) add "In the fall of 1924, Mr. A. Cooper, a prominent poultryman of Treesbank, observed a large weasel carrying a freshly killed rat which it stored below ground and then returned towards the poultry-house, causing no little apprehension to the owner. Within a short time, however, the weasel reappeared with another rat which it hid as before. In this way several rodents were accounted for during the afternoon, and Mr. Cooper assures us that the weasel 'kept up the good work for some days'." Hamilton (1933:330) in New York State in May, 1927, saw a male weasel in possession of a rat.

Big jumping mouse (Zapus major).--In the Warner Mountains of California, on Parker Creek, H. C. Bryant frightened a weasel that dropped a freshly killed jumping mouse (Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale, 1937:232).

Snowshoe rabbit (Lepus americanus).--Adolph Murie (1935:321-322) writes that: "Four miles north of Funkley, Minnesota, early on the morning of November 13, 1921, . . . watched from the top of a 30-foot spruce a weasel. .. hunting a varying hare. . . . The ground was covered with six inches of fresh snow . . . both animals . . . their [white] winter pelage.

"My attention was first attracted to the hare as it came hopping steadily but unhurriedly from the north. Directly in front of me, about 75 feet from the tree I had climbed, the hare crisscrossed back and forth at various angles over an open area about 20 feet in diameter. After producing a maze of tracks, the hare 'froze' near one edge of the pattern. In a few minutes the weasel appeared, all his faculties focused on the warm trail. Expertly he followed its convolutions, passing at times within a few feet of the watching hare. Not until the weasel had followed every turn of the trail to within three feet of its termination did the hare skip off. It came out to the road almost directly below me, turned at right angles northward and was soon out of sight. At the road the weasel lost the trail, . . . and then ran parallel with it, once more in hot pursuit.

"Ten minutes later the hare emerged from the north as before, came on directly to the tracked-up area, and continuing its stratagem, leisurely hopped about to leave its zigzag trail. Then it sat down quietly to wait. . . . The weasel['s] . . . nose led him through the network with little trouble. He was almost upon the hare before it jumped off and followed the same path . . . before. . . .

"The hare had to show his big heels [a third time] . . . as the weasel approached him. This time the weasel failed to follow. . . . After examining a few brush heaps he vanished into the woods behind me."

Seton (1929 (4):723, 724) writes that in December of 1886 in the sandhills northeast of Carberry, Manitoba, he saw a weasel chasing a snowshoe rabbit which took refuge near his feet under the sleigh and so escaped the weasel. Thurber (1940:356) mentions a month-old varying hare that was rescued from a weasel and of approximately the same size as the weasel.

Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) for the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba, record "August 21, 1921.--Heard cries of a small rabbit at dusk to-night, which investigation showed was being attacked by a large weasel. The rabbit was later carried to the weasel's store chamber below ground." They record further (op. cit., 146, 147): "November 8, 1924.--Shot a bush rabbit and left it lying. Two hours later . . . was found to have been dragged beneath a brush pile and partly eaten. Innumerable weasel tracks left no doubt as to the identity of the thief." In describing a weasel that wintered in a nest in a threshing machine, the same authors (op. cit.:143) say that no bird remains were found in the pile of approximately three pounds of droppings adjacent to the nest. In a store chamber some 140 yards away from the nest, two bush rabbits (Lepus americanus) had been dragged to the entrance and numerous smaller rodents were taken below ground. The rabbits were buried beneath the snow and eaten as necessity arose. Narrow selectivity on the part of the weasel in choosing food is almost always shown in instances where the food of weasels has been studied. For example, the weasel which lived in the threshing machine ate rodents and rabbits and not poultry although the weasel had ready access to the poultry building. The weasel which lived in the bag of feathers in the basement of Stuart Criddle's house ignored grouse, approximately 20 in number, in favor of other non-avian food.

Cottontail (Sylvilagus).--Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941) mention that one of 4 weasels which they studied on a 160 acre area at Ames, Iowa, in 1939, had a cache of food in a pocket gopher burrow 10 rods distant from the weasel's den. The cache contained only two cottontails, one partly eaten. Leopold (1937) records seeing a Mustela (probably a long-tailed weasel but possibly an ermine) kill a third-grown cottontail by biting it at the base of the skull. Leopold describes the blood sucking or licking, suggesting that he shared the popular misconception that weasels suck blood. The supposition that weasels suck blood has been refuted by many observers, for example by Svihla (1931). My own observation of captives makes me think that weasels do not suck blood. Seton (1929 (2):626) quotes B. H. Warren as seeing a weasel dragging a freshly killed, still warm, rabbit that contained nine embryos almost ready for birth. A young rabbit was seen being carried by a weasel in Hidalgo County, Texas, in March, 1935 (Mulaik, 1938:104). An instance of a cottontail being chased in June in South Carolina is recorded by Hamilton (1933:330). Addy (1939:372, 373), in Virginia, on August 14, 1939, shot a large weasel which was pursuing a Sylvilagus that was only a foot and a half ahead of the weasel. The rabbit stopped when a shot was fired and permitted itself to be stroked and petted. Tracking showed that the weasel had chased the rabbit for a half mile. On November 20, 1942, at Lake James, Indiana, a weasel was seen by Grosjean (1942:443) attacking a "young rabbit" in the throat of which the weasel had made five large holes from which there was no obvious bleeding. Seton (1929 (4):798) recounts that in 1910 at Base Lake, Michigan, F. C. Hicks saw a cottontail with a weasel hanging to its legs rush to the cottage. When only four feet from Hicks the weasel loosed its hold and the cottontail escaped under the cottage. Burroughs (1939:253) on May 14, 1939, in Saginaw County, Michigan, records that a young cottontail weighing between 200 and 250 grams was carried from the nest and killed. Burroughs was attracted first by the "hissing scream" of the weasel, strode toward the sound, flushed an adult cottontail, and discovered the empty nest from which the weasel had taken the young cottontail.

Brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani).--Vestal (1937:364) in Contra Costa County, California, found a brush rabbit that appeared to have been killed by a weasel.

Reptiles.--Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:234) recount that in July, 1889, in Wilson Canyon, near Pasadena, California, a weasel killed a red racer by severing the backbone of the snake. In April, 1935, in Hidalgo County, Texas, a half grown bull snake (Pituophis sayi sayi) was regurgitated by a young weasel. Russell (1930:504, 505) has recorded finding in California a male weasel and a king snake (Lampropeltis getulus boylii) three feet five inches long in mortal combat. The weasel killed the snake but the weasel, incapacitated by the conflict, was easily picked up by hand and was also saved as a specimen.

Wild birds.--In the spring of 1940, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, one bobwhite, of 10 bobwhite living on a 640 acre area, was killed by one of four weasels that lived on the area. No other quail was killed there. The one unfortunate bird was killed in the mouth of an abandoned den where the quail roosted (Quick, 1944:76). A male weasel, subspecies M. f. effera, was seen by Booth (1946:439) attempting to enter the nesting hole of a pair of flickers, Colaptes. One song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), and one slate-colored junco (Junco hyemalis) were recorded by Quick (1944:76) as killed by weasel in Michigan.

Chicken (genus Gallus).--Quick (1944:78) writes that in one year (1938-1939) weasels were reported to have killed 1.03 per cent of all chickens in one township of Washtenaw County, Michigan, and that of the total damage to all kinds of poultry, 59 per cent was done by weasels. Weasels entered 19 per cent of the chicken coops on the study area. Farmers killed 68 per cent of the weasels seen in barn yards. Spring and summer were the seasons in which most of the weasels were observed in barn yards. Internal evidence in Quick's (op. cit.) account leads me to suspect that some losses of poultry were charged to weasels when Rattus was actually responsible.

Criddle and Criddle (1925:146), quote a neighbor in the vicinity of Treesbank, Manitoba, as recording that on October 29, 1917, "A weasel last night made its way into our fowl-house, the door being inadvertently left open. The weasel killed eleven fowl, some of which were dragged into the yard. All the largest fowls were selected, the pullets remaining untouched though they were in the majority. Next night the weasel dug a hole beneath the building and killed a hen and two cocks, returning for another during the day, making a total of fourteen in all." Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) remark that the weasel proved to be a large one, probably an old male. The same authors (op. cit.:147) record that at their farm at Treesbank, Manitoba, on January 31, 1925, "A Long-tailed Weasel killed three hens last night, and rather severely bit a cock about the neck. This, or another weasel, had been around the farm-yard for sometime (The specimen was a large male). . . .

"In the fall of 1924, Mr. A. Cooper, a prominent poultryman of Treesbank, observed a large weasel carrying a freshly killed rat which it stored below ground and then returned towards the poultry-house, causing no little apprehension to the owner. Within a short time, however, the weasel reappeared with another rat which it hid as before. In this way several rodents were accounted for during the afternoon, and Mr. Cooper assures us that the weasel 'kept up the good work for same days'.

"Being a farmer of many years' standing, Mr. Cooper has naturally lost some poultry through the agency of weasels, but while he remarks that 'there are good as well as bad actors among weasels', he has the practical good sense to recognize the value of an efficient ratter even though it be a weasel.

"Our sister, Maida Criddle, writes under date of March 4, 1925:

"'There is another weasel (longicauda) in the fowl-house, a well-behaved one this time. It came and took a piece of meat out of my hand quite nicely, which it carried down a hole and then came and sniffed all over my mitt to see if there was any more. I thought it had been killed when I visited the farm buildings next day as there was a strong smell of musk on the cat and in the fowl house, but the weasel was there as cheeky as ever. It got hold of my skirt twice and tried to pull me down its hole. I think it wanted the cloth for a bed, as it was taking straw and other material down the burrow. The poultry were very frightened at first, but they are getting used to the weasel's presence now'."

In commenting on the economic role of the long-tailed weasel in Manitoba, Criddle and Criddle (1925:145) write as follows: "Supply and demand are prominent factors in governing our weasels' food habits. The two smaller species, as we have already pointed out are so dependent upon mice for a living that they increase or diminish with the fluctuation of these creatures. The Long-tailed Weasel, however, is not so easily checked by the temporary disappearance of any particular kind of game. If mice are scarce it devotes greater attention to gophers or bush rabbits and if these are not in sufficient numbers to satisfy its appetite, the animal raids a poultry house as a last resource. In nine years out of ten, this weasel will find sufficient food about the fields and woods, but on the tenth it may be obliged to temporarily turn to domestic animals. It is at such times that the weasel is seen and its deeds recorded. A thousand mice may have been killed in the meantime, but the destruction of half a dozen hens is alone used as evidence of the weasel's economic standing.

"In the last twenty years we have permitted weasels to frequent the farm buildings at will and the poultry house has been no exception. In that time rats and mice suffered severely from the weasels, while the total number of poultry taken were six. Many times that number, however, have been killed by rats.

"When we review our experiences of the past, we are astonished to find what few poultry have been killed by weasels. Our own losses in forty-two years have not exceeded fifteen birds and even these were usually eatable. There have been reports of losses from time to time from neighbors, but on looking into details we find that there are very few farmers who have experienced more than three separate occasions of weasel depredation and the total loss per farmer in the last thirty years does not, we are sure, exceed ten birds. This is surely a remarkably small payment to weasels in general for the great good done by them in killing rodents.