Biology_of_Mustelids_Vol_1.pdf

127.
According to investigations in other countries, the rutting time
of the stoat in Central Europe is summer, and if this is also true in
(a)
(b)
Finland, would be difficult to detect. In farmyards I myself have
seen indications of this kind on the 16 June;
but also, at the beginning of
February,
I have confirmed stoat prints showing courting displays in the
snow.
It is difficult at present even to estimate at what time the stoats'
rutting season occurs in Finland, but more recent investigations may be
more informative.
If conditions(c) in Finland are markedly different from
those in Central Europe,
the reproduction patterns of stoats could also be
quite different.
The weasel preys on small animals e.g. voles and mice, but it
eats insects and their larvae, and even worms.
It steals the eggs and young
of small birds and kills the mother too if it can.
It has also been ,known
to attack larger birds, such as grey partridges, partridges and white
ptarmigans, by surprising them in their sleep at night, in the same way as
does the stoat.
It bites the throat, holds on and hangs there until life
is extingUished. However, its methods of hunting small mammals are different
from those of the stoat.
Being small and supple, the weasel is well adapted
to hunt along the vales' runways and can easily enter their holes.
It
seldom uses the stoat's "bolting" method:
have I actually observed this behaviour.
way into a rodent's nest, kills the owner,
only once, in the early summer,
Generally, the weasel pushes its
and remains there for same time.
The weasel occurs wherever there are small mammals,
know any part of our country where it is particularly common.
but I do not
In many
places it follows [the movements of] small mammals:
it can be encountered
(a) i.e. Nyholm's snow tracking methods would not apply. -
Ed.
(b) possibly meaning "in captivity" -
(c) presumably, climatic conditions. -
Ed.
Ed.