Weasel

Weasels are mammals forming the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. The genus includes the weasels, European polecats, stoats, ferrets and European minks. They are small, active predators, long and slender with short legs. The Mustelidae family (which also includes badgers, otters and wolverines) is often referred to as the weasel family. In the UK, the term "weasel" usually refers to the smallest species Mustela nivalis (also known as the least weasel).

Weasels vary in length from 173 to 217 mm, females being smaller than the males, and usually have red or brown upper coats and white bellies; some populations of some species moult to a wholly white coat in winter. They have long, slender bodies, which enable them to follow their prey into burrows. Their tails may be from 34 to 52 mm long.

Weasels feed on small mammals, and have from time to time been considered vermin, since some species took poultry from farms, or rabbits from commercial warrens. They can be found all across the world except for Antarctica, Australia, and neighbouring islands.

Terminology
The English word "weasel" was originally applied to one species of the genus, the European form of the least weasel (Mustela nivalis). This usage is retained in British English, where the name is also extended to cover several other small species of the genus. However, in technical discourse and in American usage, the term "weasel" can refer to any member of the genus, or to the genus as a whole. Of the 17 extant species currently classified in the genus Mustela, ten have "weasel" in their common names. Among those that do not are the stoat, the polecats, the ferret, and the European mink. (The superficially similar American mink is now regarded as belonging in another genus, Neovison.)

Species
The following information is according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 1 Europe and northern Asia division excludes China.

The extinct "Sea Mink" was commonly included in this genus as Mustela macrodon, but in 1999 was moved to the genus Neovison.

Cultural meanings
Weasels have been assigned a variety of different cultural meanings.

In Greek culture, a weasel near the house is a sign of bad luck, even evil, "especially if there is in the household a girl about to be married", since the animal (based on its Greek etymology) was thought to be an unhappy bride who was transformed into a weasel and consequently delights in destroying wedding dresses. In neighboring Macedonia, however, weasels are generally seen as an omen of good fortune.

In early modern Mecklenburg, Germany, amulets from weasels were deemed to have strong magic; the period between August 15 and September 8 was specifically designated for the killing of weasels.

In Montagne Noire (France), Ruthenia (Eastern Europe), and the early medieval culture of the Wends, weasels were not meant to be killed.

In North America, native Americans deemed the weasel to be a bad sign; crossing its path meant a "speedy death". According to Daniel Defoe also, meeting a weasel is a bad omen. In English-speaking areas, weasel can be a disparaging term, noun or verb, for someone regarded as sneaky, conniving or untrustworthy. Similarly, weasel words is a critical term for words or phrasing that are vague, misleading or equivocal.

Japanese folklore
In Japan, weasels (鼬、鼬鼠) were seen as yōkai from time immemorial, and they cause various strange occurrences. According to the encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue from the Edo period, a nate of weasels would cause conflagrations, and the cry of a weasel was considered a harbinger of misfortune. In the Niigata Prefecture, the sound of a nate of weasels making a rustle resembled 6 people hulling rice, and therefore was called the "the weasel's six-person mortar", and it was an omen for one's home to decline or flourish. It is said that when people chase after this sound, the sound stops.

They are also said to shapeshift like the fox (kitsune) or tanuki, and the nyūdō-bōzu told about in legends in the Tōhoku region and the Chūbu region are considered weasels in disguise, and they are also said to shapeshift into ōnyūdō and little monks.

In the collection of depictions, the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama, they were depicted under the title 鼬, but they were read not as "itachi" but rather as "ten", and "ten" were considered to be weasels that have reached one hundred years of age and became yōkai that possessed supernatural powers. Another theory is that when weasels reach several hundred years of age, they become mujina.

In Japanese weasels are called "iizuna" or "izuna" (飯綱) and in the Tōhoku Region and Shinshū, it was believed that there were families that were able to use a certain practice to freely use kudagitsune as "iizuna-tsukai" or "kitsune-mochi". It is said that Mount Iizuna, from the Nagano Prefecture, got its name due to how the gods gave people mastery of this technique from there.

According to the folkloristician Mutō Tetsujō, "They are called 'izuna' in the Senboku District, Akita Prefecture, and there are also the ichiko (itako) that use them." Also, in the Kitaakita District, they are called mōsuke (猛助), and they are feared as yōkai even more than foxes (kitsune).

In the Ainu language, ermines are called "upas-čironnup" or "sáčiri", but since least weasels are also called "sáčiri", Mashio Chiri surmised that the honorary title "poy-sáčiri-kamuy" (where "poy" means "small") refers to least weasels.

Kamaitachi
Kamaitachi are a phenomenon wherein one who is idle is suddenly injured, as if his or her skin were cut by a scythe. In the past, this was thought to be "the deed of an invisible yōkai weasel". However, this has been established as a physiological phenomenon that dried skin that receives a shock would tear off. An alternate theory, asserts that "kamaitachi" are derived from "kamae tachi (構え太刀)", and therefore were not originally related to weasels at all.

Film

 * In the Foghorn Leghorn animated film Flop Goes the Weasel (1943), a weasel tries to capture Foghorn Leghorn for food.
 * In the initiation scene in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Bluto (John Belushi) names one of the new members "Weasel".

Holidays

 * Weasels have their own holiday, titled Weasel Stomping Day, which is based on the song by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Literature

 * In Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book, The Wind in the Willows (1908), a pack of armed weasels overrun Toad Hall and has to be ejected by Badger, Mole, Ratty, and Toad.

Music

 * Frank Zappa's album, Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970), with artwork by Neon Park, parodies a 1950s razor advertisement.

Photography

 * Tim Chester posted in Mashable the photograph and article titled "Here's a photo of a weasel riding a woodpecker".