Weasels

Badgers are related to weasels, otters, wolverines and ferrets. They eat small animals and sometimes insects. Badgers come from Europe. They are excellent diggers, and make themselves burrows called setts.

A male badger is a boar, a female badger is a sow and a baby badger is a cub. The collective name for a group of badgers is a cete.

Ferrets are domestic animals, usually kept as pets. They are related to the polecat and weasel. Ferrets eat small pest animals like rats and rabbits.

Meerkats are members of the mongoose family that is native to parts of Africa. They live in large groups, with 20 to 30 members in a group. They live in burrows underground. Meerkats eat mostly insects but will also eat anything else small they can catch. They are immune to scorpion venom.

When meerkats are out looking for food during the day, some members of their group will stand guard and tell the group of they see any predators coming.

Mink are a small, dark brown member of the weasel family. Their coat is thick and glossy and has been used for making fur coats from. Mink like to live around water, and eat fish, crayfish, rabbits and water birds.

Otters are a medium sized animal that spends most of its time in the water. Otters are excellent swimmers, and they eat mostly fish but will also eat small animals and birds if they catch them.

Otters are related to weasels and badgers.

A polecat, also called a fitch or foulmart, is a member of the weasel family. They are larger than weasels but smaller than otters, and are found mostly in Europe.

Polecats sleep during the day and hunt at night. Polecats eat small animals like mice, voles and frogs.

Skunks are medium sized animals best known for their ability to make a really bad smell. They can squirt their stinky substance several feet with great accuracy. The smell is bad enough to scare even a bear away, and a person can smell it from a mile away. The smell is almost impossible to wash out of anything it has touched.

Skunks sleep during the day and night and come out at dawn and dusk to look for food. Skunks eat insects, mice, small lizards, salamanders, frogs, snakes, birds, moles, and eggs. They also eat berries, roots, leaves, grasses, mushrooms, and nuts.

There is some debate about whether skunks are related to weasels or if they are alone in their own family.

A stoat, also called an ermine, is a kind of small weasel. Its coat changes from brown in summer to white in winter in cold areas. Sometimes only a white stoat is called an ermine. Stoats, like other weasels, are quick hunters and eat small animals and insects.

A weasel is a small animal related to the ferret and otter, and are found mainly in Europe. Weasels eat smaller animals like mice, rats and sometimes rabbits. They sometimes will eat chickens. Weasels are long and thin so they can go down small holes and eat animals that live underground.

The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family, although they look like small bears. They are found mostly in the northern, cold regions of the world like Alaska and Siberia. They are ferocious hunters and can kill things much larger than they are.