What a family: The dig, they climb, they swim...
Durango Herald & Farmington Daily Times, Dec 13, 2007
Becky Gillette, Program Director


'Tis the season for family celebrations!

What mammal family includes animals that can dig faster than a human with a shovel, swim backward torpedo-style, drive cougars and bears from a kill, and dine on porcupines without getting injured?

Need more hints? This family includes the rarest North American mammal, the smallest North American carnivore, and a species that feasts on prey two to three times its size.

One family member may kill and eat injured siblings, spur-red merely by the scent of blood. One eats snapping turtles and another spends most of its time in trees.

Stumped? The family called Mustelidae (muh-STELL-ih-dee) includes the champion-digging badger, swift-swimming river otter and cougar-fighting wolverine. The fisher, nicknamed "fisher-cat" for its back-arching displays, kills a porcupine by flipping it over and taking a fatal swipe at the soft, quill-free belly.

The almost extinct black-footed ferret charts high on the endangered list, as does the prairie grass ecosystem upon which it depends. The riverside-dwelling mink preys on snapping turtles. The arboreal marten employs excellent climbing skills in pursuit of birds and flying squirrels.

The least weasel, measuring 7 to 8 inches long, is the smallest sharp-toothed meat-eater on the continent. Long- and short-tailed weasels sometimes take prey much larger than themselves, and some are so bloodthirsty as to eat their own kin if they smell good enough. All weasels kill by pouncing on the victim's back and delivering a powerful bite to the base of the skull.

The short-tailed weasel, or ermine (UR-minn), adapts to snowy winters by changing its summer brown fur to winter white. Their camouflage enhances their excellent hunting prowess, and also provides cover from hungry owls, snakes and larger carnivorous mammals.

Mustelids are named for the musky odor produced by anal scent glands found in all species.

Skunks, the most malodorous of all, were once considered mustelids. They are now a separate family, due in part to the different physical structure of their scent-shooter. The skunk, it turns out, can outshoot any true mustelid, which simply emits odors rather than firing them projectile-style.

From Arctic tundra to sand dune deserts and equatorial rainforest, mustelids inhabit all kinds of terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments. Thirty-eight percent of mustelid species worldwide are threatened, disproportionate to the 15 percent of mammals in general.

Like other carnivores, mustelids have been hunted, trapped and poisoned, sometimes to the brink of extinction. They smell bad, burrow in inconvenient areas and occasionally prey on livestock. They are also some of the most efficient rodent hunters, providing a necessary ecological service.

MORE ARTICLES