Ermine animal. Description, features and habitat of the ermine
All animals belonging to the weasel family are exotic, and the ermine is no exception. This is a very interesting and cute animal that tolerates captivity quite well. If the ermine was taken at an early age, then the process of taming it becomes easier.
Animal behavior and lifestyle
By nature, stoats are terrestrial creatures, however, sometimes they can climb trees that are slightly inclined. That is why the animal is able to overcome any uneven obstacle without much difficulty. Ermine, like many mustelids, likes to dig the ground, so it is advisable to remove pots with indoor plants from his field of vision.
By nature, this is a very curious and playful animal. Ermine at home prefers to sleep at night, and shows its activity during the day, which greatly facilitates its care. If the animal was brought up by a person from an early age, then it gets used to its owner and even allows you to take it in hand.
Ermine tends to be clean. As a toilet, an ordinary cat tray, which can be placed in the corner of the room, is quite suitable for him. Wood chips can serve as a filler, they very effectively destroy an unpleasant odor. To prevent the animal from turning its toilet over, it can be covered on top with some kind of mesh material that can be fixed with push pins. The tray is installed either in the cage or in the room.
As for plant foods, in nature the ermine only feeds on it involuntarily, but you can try to give the animal some berries or nuts. You also need to pay attention to the fact that, in addition to muscle meat, the animal eats bones and various entrails, such as the liver, lungs, heart, etc. Sometimes the ermine's diet can be diversified with quail eggs.
Content Features
As for the conditions of home maintenance, they are very similar for all mustelids, and the ermine is no exception. The animal will need a spacious cage, a drinking bowl with water and a toilet tray. This animal leads a very active lifestyle, so it will not be superfluous to install various snags, hemp, shelves and cornices in a cage. If the cage is cramped, then the ermine will be limited in movement and will not be able to show its natural habits. Particular attention should be paid to the cells of the cage - their size should be such that the animal cannot climb through them. As bedding, you can use sawdust, hay or special fillers.
Despite the fact that the tame ermine is kept in a cage, it still needs to be released into the room at least once a day for 2-3 hours. In principle, the animal can be kept simply in the apartment, but in this way it can be lost, because it can escape through an open window, door or balcony. Therefore, a walk around the apartment should be supervised. Ermine is a very active and fast animal that likes to make its way into narrow holes, so it can be observed in the most hidden corners of the house.
Feeding
The feeding of the stoat is similar to that of many other members of the weasel family. The animal is a predator, and in natural conditions it mainly feeds on mouse-like rodents, birds and fish. Therefore, fresh mice, rats, fish and chickens should be included in his diet.
Regardless of which ermine - domestic or wild - with the advent of spring, he has a rut. At this time, males are especially restless, as they are in search of a female. In addition, the male tends to leave his urinary marks everywhere.
Pros and cons of keeping ermine
Thanks to a cheerful and playful disposition, the ermine is never boring.
Due to the fact that the animal has a relatively small size, during trips it can even fit in a simple women's bag.
In the wild, the predator is active at night, but at home it easily adapts to the rhythm of life of a person.
The animal has a pretty good intelligence.
Its fur is not as allergenic as that of dogs or cats.
A person may have a personal intolerance to the smell of ermine skin.
The predator has such a means of protection as the perianal glands, and the secretions contained there have a rather specific smell. However, it wears off quickly.
Ermines tend to dig everything, and it is impossible to wean them from this. Therefore, those who have indoor flowers will either have to remove them away, or come to terms with the earth scattered on the floor.
During the mating season, the ermine tends to mark its territory.
If after a meal the animal has excess food left, then it seeks to hide it in hard-to-reach places.
Under natural conditions, the stoat does not live very long, only about 2 years. A similar phenomenon is due to the fact that the animal has many natural enemies. However, when kept at home, the life expectancy of the animal increases several times and is about 7-8 years.
Ermine- a small animal from the weasel family, which is famous not only for its uniquely beautiful fur, but also for the number of legends associated with its person.
Noble people respected this nimble beast very much because, according to beliefs, he incredibly valued his skin, and died if dirt appeared on his white fur. Therefore, his fur adorned judicial robes and hats, and also served as an adornment of royal dresses.
Even in art, this animal is depicted as a symbol of ideal moral purity, so famous picture of a lady with an ermine brushes by Leonardo da Vinci, this cute animal emphasizes the morality and high moral beauty of Cecilia Galleroni, a lady who was known for her high moral principles, as well as her education.
And even despite the time that separates us from the century in which Leonardo da Vinci lived, the ermine still remains a noble and desirable animal, and all thanks to its beauty.
Description and features of ermine
Ermine is a member of the mustelid group, and outwardly resembles a weasel, which is why they are often confused. But still, with a detailed study, one can notice significant differences between these two species. The weasel is smaller and has a not so long tail, and its fur is somewhat different.
Ermine Description:
- A graceful and flexible body, reaching a length of 20 to 30 cm.
- Long tail 7-11cm.
- The weight of a mature animal is usually in the range up to 200 g.
- Males are somewhat larger than females.
In the summer season, these animals boast two-tone fur. Their head and back are brown, but the breast and belly are white with a slight touch of yellow. And here stoat in winter- that's a completely different story.
The fur of this furry animal with the onset of cold weather becomes snow-white thick and silky, only the very tip of the tail does not change color and remains black all year round. It is winter ermine fur that is valued by connoisseurs of fur coats.
The habitat of the ermine is huge. It can be found in the European part, and in the snowy, and even in. It has even been artificially introduced to New Zealand as a rabbit control measure. Only in the Russian Federation there are 9 subspecies of this animal.
Judging by the favorite places of the animal, then stoat animal water-loving, it often lives near water bodies. And at the same time, despite the value of his fur, he likes to build a dwelling near human villages.
He is quite curious, but does not like open spaces. He leads a predominantly solitary lifestyle and jealously marks the boundaries of his territory with a special secret.
The ermine is a smart animal and not tied to its home, if there is a shortage of food, then this predator easily leaves its homes and migrates to more favorable areas.
Remarkably, the ermine does not dig holes itself, but borrows them from rodents to hunt, or settles in the ruins. Females often decorate their burrows with the skins of dead animals.
The ermine diet is quite diverse: large rodents, such as chipmunks, birds, bird eggs, fish, and even lizards. Females are more skilled hunters than males. The method of killing prey is a bite in the occipital region.
Unfortunately, the sprawl of human cities and stoat hunting led to the fact that the population of this species of fur-bearing animal is declining. Today, because of its valuable fur, this species is in danger, because of which the public had to take care of its protection. And therefore ermine listed in red book.
Reproduction and life expectancy of the ermine
This furry animal lives for a relatively short time, on average 1-2 years, centenarians can reach the age of 7 years. Sexual maturity in males occurs at 11-14 months, but females are ready for breeding almost from birth. The male can fertilize the female at the 2nd month of her life. Reproduction in this species occurs once a year.
Males are active for 4 months (from February to June), but cubs appear only in April or May of the following year. This is explained by the fact that the period of pregnancy of the female begins with the so-called latent stage, during which the embryos do not grow. This stage can last up to 9 months, while the entire period of pregnancy can reach 10 months.
Usually the female brings from 3 to 10 cubs, but the maximum number of offspring can reach 20. Newborns are helpless. They are blind, toothless and almost bald.
The female takes care of them. They begin to see clearly in about a month, and after another month they are indistinguishable from adults. Therefore, on the "family" photo of stoats they will be difficult to distinguish from the mother.
The main interest for humans is ermine fur. Even just pictures of stoats able to convey all the beauty of his coat, especially in the winter season. His fur is worth its weight in gold, but what is remarkable ermine coat- incredibly beautiful. After all, the texture, colors and fluffiness of the fur are at their best, but it is extremely difficult to wear such a product.
Incredibly pleasant to the touch, the fur of this animal, however, is not very durable. Products from it should be worn with great care, avoiding all kinds of friction. Plus, in most cases, when sewing a fur coat, a thin lining is used, which is why such a product cannot be called warm either.
But despite these difficulties, only very rich people can afford an ermine fur thing. Ermine price, or rather, for products made from his fur is quite high and therefore few people decide on a fur coat from this animal. More often ermine it is used only for decorative finishing of some elements, and already this can double the cost of a thing.
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(Mustela erminea)
Class - mammals
Squad - Carnivores
Family - mustelids
Genus - weasels and ferrets
Appearance
Ermine is a small animal of typical mustelian appearance with a long body on short legs, a long neck and a triangular head with small rounded ears. The body length of the male is 17-38 cm (females are about half as long), the tail length is about 35% of the body length - 6-12 cm; body weight - from 70 to 260 g. It looks like a weasel, but somewhat larger in size.
The color of the fur is protective: in winter it is pure white, in summer it is two-tone - the upper body is brownish-red, the bottom is yellowish-white. Winter color is typical for areas where at least 40 days a year there is snow. The tip of the tail is black throughout the year. Geographical variability in winter fur quality, summer fur color, and body size makes it possible to distinguish about 26 ermine subspecies.
Habitat
It lives in the arctic, subarctic and temperate zones of Eurasia and North America. In Europe, it is found from Scandinavia to the Pyrenees and the Alps, with the exception of Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. In Asia, its range reaches the deserts of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Northeast China and northern Japan. In North America, it is found in Canada, on the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, in Greenland and in the north of the USA (except for the Great Plains). On the territory of Russia, it is common in the European north and in Siberia.
It was introduced to New Zealand to control the rabbit population.
Ermine is most numerous in forest-steppe, taiga and tundra regions. The choice of their habitat is determined by the abundance of the main food - small rodents. As a rule, the ermine prefers to settle near water: along the banks and floodplains of rivers and streams, near forest lakes, along coastal meadows, thickets of shrubs and reeds. It rarely enters the depths of forests; in the forests it keeps old overgrown burnt areas and clearings, forest edges (especially near villages and arable lands); in dense forests, he likes spruce and alder groves near the streams. Common in copses, along steppe ravines and gullies. Avoids open spaces. Sometimes it settles near human habitation, in fields, gardens and forest parks, even on the outskirts of cities.
Behavior
Leads a predominantly solitary territorial way of life. The boundaries of the individual site are marked with the secretion of the anal glands. Plot sizes vary from 10 to 20 ha; in males, it is usually twice as large as in females, and intersects with their areas. Males and females live separately and meet only during the mating season. In hungry and low-fed years, stoats leave their territories and move, sometimes over considerable distances. Sometimes migration also causes mass reproduction of rodents in neighboring areas.
The stoat is active mainly in the twilight-night hours, sometimes it is also found during the day. In the choice of shelters, including broods, unpretentious. It can be found in the most unexpected places - for example, in haystacks, heaps of stones, in the ruins of abandoned buildings or in logs piled against the wall of a residential building. It also occupies tree hollows, often hiding in them during floods. Often the ermine occupies the burrows and nesting chambers of the rodents killed by it. The female lines her brood hole with the skins and hair of dead rodents, less often with dry grass. The ermine does not dig holes on its own. In winter, it does not have permanent shelters and uses random shelters - under stones, tree roots, logs. Rarely returns to the place of the day.
The stoat swims and climbs well, but is essentially a specialized land predator. Mouse-like rodents predominate in its diet, but unlike its relative, the weasel, which feeds on small voles, the stoat preys on larger rodents - water voles, hamsters, chipmunks, haystacks, lemmings, etc., overtaking them in burrows and under snow. The size does not allow it to penetrate into the holes of smaller rodents. Females hunt in burrows more often than males. Of secondary importance in the stoat diet are birds and their eggs, as well as fish and shrews. Even less often (with a lack of basic food), the ermine eats amphibians, lizards and insects. Able to attack animals larger than himself (grouse, hazel grouse, white partridges, hares and rabbits); in famine years, he even eats garbage or steals meat and fish from people. When food is plentiful, the stoat builds up stocks, exterminating more rodents than it can eat. Prey kills like a weasel - biting through the skull in the occipital region. Ermine tracks down rodents, focusing on the smell, insects - on the sound, fish - with the help of vision.
Ermine is a very mobile and dexterous animal. His movements are fast, but somewhat fussy. On hunting per day, it travels up to 15 km, in winter - an average of 3 km. On the snow it moves in jumps up to 50 cm long, pushing off the ground with both hind legs. It is an excellent swimmer and easily climbs trees. Pursued by the enemy, it often sits on a tree until the danger has passed. Usually silent, but in an excited state it chirps loudly, can chirp, hiss and even bark.
reproduction
The stoat is polygamous and breeds once a year. Sexual activity in males lasts 4 months, from mid-February to early June. Pregnancy in females with a long latent stage (8-9 months) - embryos do not develop until March. In total, it lasts 9-10 months, so the cubs appear in April - May of the next year. The number of cubs in litters ranges from 3 to 18, with an average of 4-9. Only the female takes care of them.
Newborns weigh 3-4 g with a body length of 32-51 mm, are born blind, toothless, with closed auditory canals and covered with sparse white hair. At 30-41 days they begin to see clearly, and at 2-3 months they are indistinguishable from adults in size. At the end of June - in July, they already get food on their own.
Females reach puberty very early, at 2-3 months, and males only at the age of 11-14 months. Young females (aged 60-70 days) can be productively covered by adult males, a unique case among mammals, contributing to the survival of the species. The average life expectancy of an ermine is 1-2 years, the maximum is 7 years. The fertility and abundance of stoats fluctuate greatly, rising sharply during the years of abundance of rodents and falling catastrophically when they die out.
Ermines are very well tamed. Thanks to their hyperactivity, they will amuse you from morning to evening.
For an ermine, it must have a very small distance between the bars, otherwise the animal will run out of it.
Feeding stoats is best with a balanced cat or ferret diet. A live or dead rat or chicken should be given at least once or twice a week. You can give raw chicken. In captivity, the ermine eats 50-75 g of meat or 2-3 voles per day. In general, the amount of meat food he absorbs per day exceeds half his own weight. Once a week, arrange fasting days for the ermine.
All animals belonging to the weasel family are exotic, and the ermine is no exception. This is a very interesting and cute animal that tolerates captivity quite well. If the ermine was taken at an early age, then the process of taming it becomes easier.
Animal behavior and lifestyle
By nature, stoats are terrestrial creatures, however, sometimes they can climb trees that are slightly inclined. That is why the animal is able to overcome any uneven obstacle without much difficulty. Ermine, like many mustelids, likes to dig the ground, so it is advisable to remove pots with indoor plants from his field of vision.
By nature, this is a very curious and playful animal. Ermine at home prefers to sleep at night, and shows its activity during the day, which greatly facilitates its care. If the animal was brought up by a person from an early age, then it gets used to its owner and even allows you to take it in hand.
Ermine tends to be clean. As a toilet, an ordinary cat tray, which can be placed in the corner of the room, is quite suitable for him. Wood chips can serve as a filler, they very effectively destroy an unpleasant odor. To prevent the animal from turning its toilet over, it can be covered on top with some kind of mesh material that can be fixed with push pins. The tray is installed either in the cage or in the room.
As for plant foods, in nature the ermine only feeds on it involuntarily, but you can try to give the animal some berries or nuts. You also need to pay attention to the fact that, in addition to muscle meat, the animal eats bones and various entrails, such as the liver, lungs, heart, etc. Sometimes the ermine's diet can be diversified with quail eggs.
Content Features
As for the conditions of home maintenance, they are very similar for all mustelids, and the ermine is no exception. The animal will need a spacious cage, a drinking bowl with water and a toilet tray. This animal leads a very active lifestyle, so it will not be superfluous to install various snags, hemp, shelves and cornices in a cage. If the cage is cramped, then the ermine will be limited in movement and will not be able to show its natural habits. Particular attention should be paid to the cells of the cage - their size should be such that the animal cannot climb through them. As bedding, you can use sawdust, hay or special fillers.
Despite the fact that the tame ermine is kept in a cage, it still needs to be released into the room at least once a day for 2-3 hours. In principle, the animal can be kept simply in the apartment, but in this way it can be lost, because it can escape through an open window, door or balcony. Therefore, a walk around the apartment should be supervised. Ermine is a very active and fast animal that likes to make its way into narrow holes, so it can be observed in the most hidden corners of the house.
Feeding
The feeding of the stoat is similar to that of many other members of the weasel family. The animal is a predator, and in natural conditions it mainly feeds on mouse-like rodents, birds and fish. Therefore, fresh mice, rats, fish and chickens should be included in his diet.
Regardless of which ermine - domestic or wild - with the advent of spring, he has a rut. At this time, males are especially restless, as they are in search of a female. In addition, the male tends to leave his urinary marks everywhere.
Pros and cons of keeping ermine
Thanks to a cheerful and playful disposition, the ermine is never boring.
Due to the fact that the animal has a relatively small size, during trips it can even fit in a simple women's bag.
In the wild, the predator is active at night, but at home it easily adapts to the rhythm of life of a person.
The animal has a pretty good intelligence.
Its fur is not as allergenic as that of dogs or cats.
A person may have a personal intolerance to the smell of ermine skin.
The predator has such a means of protection as the perianal glands, and the secretions contained there have a rather specific smell. However, it wears off quickly.
Ermines tend to dig everything, and it is impossible to wean them from this. Therefore, those who have indoor flowers will either have to remove them away, or come to terms with the earth scattered on the floor.
During the mating season, the ermine tends to mark its territory.
If after a meal the animal has excess food left, then it seeks to hide it in hard-to-reach places.
Under natural conditions, the stoat does not live very long, only about 2 years. A similar phenomenon is due to the fact that the animal has many natural enemies. However, when kept at home, the life expectancy of the animal increases several times and is about 7-8 years.
Decorative ferret (ferret) is a small mammal of the weasel family, a predator. The mustelid family also includes the forest and steppe ferret, weasel, ermine, pine marten, European and American mink, sable and many other predators. Unlike other representatives of the weasel family, which are only tamed, the ferret is a domestic animal. For the first time, ferrets began to live next to humans about 2000 years ago. Today, the ferret is still a pet and in many countries is recognized as the third popular pet after a dog and a cat! That's over 7 million ferrets in the US alone in 1990.
So, all representatives of the marten family are predators. Ferrets are a cheerful, playful, curious and very funny pet. They will bring joy and fun to your home. The playful nature of the domestic ferret captivates very quickly. Decorative ferrets sleep a lot (up to 20 hours a day), but they adapt to the owner’s daily routine without any problems. They like to burrow into rags, lie in a hammock or climb pipes. Ferrets do not know how to jump high, but they are able to make long jumps up to 1 m.
Frets should not be walked unattended. Their curiosity is so great that, having gone on about this feeling, they are unlikely to be able to find their way home. Only some individuals who have hunting instincts left will be able to survive in the conditions of the city or nature. Do not think that ferrets are so easy to keep at home. They require much more attention than a cat or dog. Fretok can be compared to a small child. Ferrets are interested in everything that happens in the house, climb into all the narrow cracks, steal small items. Therefore, before you decide on the institution of this animal, you need to carefully prepare and study their temper. This animal is very different from rabbits, and from guinea pigs, and from rodents. All problems often arise due to incorrectly provided information by breeders and sellers. If you are well prepared for the appearance of the ferret in your home, the ferret will bring joy to your home and will not create any special problems.
There is an opinion that the polecat, like all mustelids, is a bloodthirsty ferocious predator, and keeping such an inherently evil animal is potentially dangerous. In fact, the polecat is one of the most peaceful representatives of the family, it is the easiest to tame, it feels the most friendliness to its relatives and to humans. Having burst into the chicken coop, a ferret or weasel crushes all the chickens, despite the fact that neither eat nor carry away so much. In fact, the bloodthirstiness of mustelids depends on hunger. At home, with an abundance of food, the wild representative of the weasel family quickly loses its "bloodthirstiness" and kills exactly as many mice as it needs to live. As for the polecat, it is one of the most peaceful representatives of the family, it is the easiest to tame, it feels the most friendliness to its relatives and to humans. Perhaps the reason for this is the way of life of ferrets in nature, where they sometimes live in large concentrations in the territory inhabited by marmots or gerbils, side by side with their fellows, without guarding the borders and not at enmity with each other.
There are rumors that the hori killed people. Even wild polecats rarely attack humans. And then, these are isolated cases. There are very few cases of domestic ferrets causing serious harm to humans, and the percentage of such cases among ferret owners is much lower than among dog owners.
Many people who have never seen a ferret are convinced that the ferret stinks, and even look for confirmation of this by sniffing it when they meet. In fact, the "stink" of a ferret does not mean the smell from the skin, but the secret of the anal glands, which the ferret spits out, like a skunk, in the heat of battle or out of fear. The everyday scent of a ferret isn't as bad as you might think. Different people have different attitudes towards this smell, despite the propaganda of disgust for natural bodily odors. Many owners compare the smell of their pet with nutmeg, honey, cookies. Modern shampoos and deodorants allow you to completely get rid of the smell of the skin. The expediency of removing the prianal glands is decided in each case. As a rule, domestic ferrets use their chemical weapons infrequently, and the smell is rather unstable, easily washed off and aired.