Moorland Weasel
A weasel emerges on top of a gritstone boulder covered in flowering purple heather, August. Derbyshire, Peak District National Park.
More About the Weasel:
The weasel (Mustela nivalis) is a small carnivore in the family Mustelidae. The Mustelid family includes around 55 different species such as stoats, weasels, polecats, badgers, martens and otters.
Weasels are energetic and fearsome predators. Their diet primarily consists of small rodents, birds and frogs. Because of their long slim bodies, weasels are able to hunt rodents in their burrows, making them extremely efficient hunters. Weasels cannot accumulate body fat and therefore must eat very frequently, consuming an incredible third of their body weight every day.
Weasels are famed for their exceptional strength relative to their body size. This strength allows them to take prey much larger than themselves, such as rabbits, which they kill by clamping down on the prey’s neck with their needle-like teeth and keep biting until the animal is dead.
In Britain weasels have long been considered pests are sadly subject to intensive predator control. Gamekeepers trap and kill them in their thousands every year. This abhorrent practice is allowed as weasels have no legal protection in Britain.
You can find more about Weasels here.