Biology_of_Mustelids_Vol_1.pdf

93·
Weasels may make caches, or larders, containing large stores of
rodents and other prey, when there is a surplus of food.
The following
records, of caches found, give examples:
18 September 1934, 69 carcases:
1 October 1934, 34 carcases; 13 September 1956, 40 specimens of Microtus
oeconomus ratticeps: 23 August 1948, 22 carcases: 17 September 1949,
37 specimens of Clethrionomys rutilus rossicus and 4 specimens of Microtus
~5tenocranius) gregalis· tundrae: 17 August 1934, 13 carcases: 10 September
1956, 18 carcases: 17 June 1957, 12 specimens of Arvicola terrestris, 11
specimens of Sorex araneus araneus and two specimens of Talpa europaea
europaea y
Besides rodents and Insectivores, the weasel stores frogs and
lizards. On 2 May 1937, for example, at Lake Musino, 60 km south of
Arkhangel'sk, we found 47 specimens of ~ temporaria in one cache, and
in another on 27 May 1962, at the Severnsk lakes, we found 23 specimens of
~ temporaria and 19 specimens of Lacerta vivipara.
In the Crimea, on the spurs of Mount Chernaya,
I found a cache of
Mustela nivalis nikolskii on 30 April 1935, containing 34 specimens of the
sand lizard (Lacerta agilis exigue), and 21
specimens on 17 May 1935(a).
At the River Malaga in the Kalininsk region, on 17 August 1941, a cache
contained 18 specimens of the garden dormouse (Eliomys guercinus superans),
and one on 15 September 1941, seven specimens of the striped field-mouse
(Apodemus agrariuB septentrignalis) and 12 specimens of house mice (~
musculus).
In the winter of 1929-32 on the estate of the Timiryazevak Agricultural
Academy near Moscow, we often found caches of weasels in the form
of a collection of dead goldcrests (Regulus regulus) buried in the snow,
with their brains eaten out.
This happened in a forest after a heavy
snowatorm, which forced the birds to come down to spend the night on young
(a) In the same cache, or another, is not clear -
Ed.
~
I