the mustelidae family

part two the stoat

The stoat is the second member of the weasel family .Stoats are slightly bigger than the weasel,They have a distinctive black tip on the end of their tail.Stoats develop embryos inside them, Depending on how much food there is available, They will reabsorb embryos to control the litter size which can be up to nine, They will do this to a point where they can provide for their young which are called kits. The more food there is available the more stoats there will be in the litter. Stoats feed mainly on mice and rabbits but will also eat insects and birds, And kill their prey by a single bite to the back of the neck.They will live in a den in a rock crevice or in a disused rabbit burrow but will also live on farmland and woodland.Their hunting ground can be up to fifty acres depending on the availability of food in their territory,Stoats will hunt by day or night.Stoats start to mate in early summer and right up to autumn, But the implantation of the embryo is delayed until the following march, The female gives birth in April or may.The female brings up the kits on her own and this is the only litter she will have during the year, The male will have nothing to do with the kits. Pairs of stoats may be seen together briefly in summer at breeding time, They both look a like but the male is about fifty per-cent bigger than the female,The male is about ten inches long with a three inch tail.They have reddish brown fur on their back with white underparts, Both have a wavy line between flank and belly fur,Small eyes and ears and a long slender body.Unlike weasels stoats live in Ireland but are slightly darker then our native stoats.The kits will first come above ground after about five weeks and maybe seen hunting and playing together, but their mother will move them from the nest if there is a threat from a predator such as a fox or a bird of prey.The kits become independent after about ten weeks. In northern Scotland the stoat still turns white in winter but always keeps the black tail.I will be talking more about this in another post called photo periodic pelage reaction.......sounds like a right mouthful i know but all will be explained.