View source for Stoat

{{speciesbox
| name = Stoat
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name=iucn>{{cite iucn |title=''Mustela erminea'' |author=Reid, F. |author2=Helgen, K. |author3=Kranz, A. |name-list-style=amp |year=2016 |page=e.T29674A45203335}}</ref>
| image = Mustela erminea upright.jpg
| genus = Mustela
| species = erminea
| authority = [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], [[10th edition of Systema Naturae|1758]]
| range_map = Stoat area.png
| range_map_caption = Stoat range
{{leftlegend|green|native|outline=gray}}
{{leftlegend|red|introduced|outline=gray}}
}}
A '''stoat''' (''Mustela erminea)'' is a small [[mammal]] of the family [[Mustelidae]]. It is also called a '''short tailed weasel'''.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Kranz|first1=Andreas|last2=International)|first2=Fiona Reid (BirdLife|last3=Kristofer Helgen (Division of Mammals|first3=National Museum of Natural History|date=2015-05-02|title=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Mustela erminea|url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/en|access-date=2020-08-31|website=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species}}</ref> It is bigger than a [[weasel]]. Stoats in their white winter coat are also called '''ermines'''. They can grow to be as long as 30 [[centimeter]]s (a foot long). They eat other small animals and bird eggs, and can kill animals bigger than themselves. They can also store food for later. They kill by biting the neck of their prey at the place where the [[skull]] attaches to the rest of the body.

==Description==
Stoats are long and thin with short legs, small ears, and thick warm fur. Their fur is brown, but changes to white in the winter. The tail has a black tip all year round. The [[whiskers]] are brown or white in colour, and very long. Stoats have a good sense of smell, and they hunt using smell. They do not see color as well as humans, but they can see better at night.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/231001892|title=Mammals of the British Isles : handbook.|date=2008|publisher=Mammal Society|others=Harris, Stephen, 1950-, Yalden, D. W. (Derek William), Mammal Society.|isbn=978-0-906282-65-6|edition=4th|location=Southampton|oclc=231001892}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/mammalsofsov212001gept|title=Mammals of the Soviet Union|last1=Geptner|first1=V. G. (Vladimir Georgievich)|last2=Nasimovich|first2=A. A.|last3=Bannikov|first3=Andrei Grigorevich|last4=Hoffmann|first4=Robert S.|date=1988|publisher=Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Libraries and National Science Foundation|others=Smithsonian Libraries}}</ref>

Males are 187–325&nbsp;mm (7.4–12.8&nbsp;in) in length. Females are 170–270&nbsp;mm (6.7–10.6&nbsp;in) in length. The tail is 75–120&nbsp;mm (3.0–4.7&nbsp;in) in males. The tail is 65–106&nbsp;mm (2.6–4.2&nbsp;in) in females. Males weigh 258 grams (9.1&nbsp;oz). Females weigh less than 180 grams (6.3&nbsp;oz).<ref name=":2" />

==Behavior==
Stoats are largely [[crepuscular]], meaning that they are most active during dawn and dusk, though they spread out their activity in short bursts during the day and night as well.

Stoats can spray a bad smelling fluid when they are scared. They are also good at climbing trees.

The stoat does not dig its own [[burrow]]s. Instead it uses the burrows of the rodents it kills. The skins and underfur of the rodents it kills are used to line the nest chamber. The nest chamber is sometimes found in places that doesn't look like a good place to live in, such as among logs piled against the walls of houses. The stoat also lives in old and rotting stumps, under tree roots, in heaps of brushwood, haystacks, in bog hummocks, in the cracks of empty mud buildings, in rock piles, rock clefts, and even in magpie nests.<ref name=":2" />

==Feeding==
The stoat lives by [[hunting]]. It usually hunts large [[rodent]]s and [[Lagomorpha|lagomorph]]<nowiki/>s. It will attack animals much larger than itself. In [[Russia]], its prey includes rodents and lagomorphs such as [[European water vole]]s, common hamsters, [[pika]]s. It overpowers them in their burrows. It also eats small [[bird]]s, [[fish]], and [[shrew]]s and, more rarely, [[amphibian]]s, [[lizard]]s, and [[insect]]s. In [[Great Britain]], European rabbits are an important source of food. Stoats that live in [[Great Britain]] rarely kill shrews, [[rat]]s, [[squirrel]]s and water voles, though rats may be an important source of food locally. In [[Ireland]], shrews and rats are frequently eaten.<ref name=":1" /> In North America, where the [[ecological niche]] for rat and rabbit sized prey is taken by the larger long-tailed weasel, the stoat hunts mice, voles, shrews, and young [[Cottontail rabbit|cottontail]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KI1AmzIDnwC&pg=PA415|title=Land Mammals of Oregon|last1=Verts|first1=B. J.|last2=Carraway|first2=Leslie N.|date=1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21199-5|language=en}}</ref> In [[New Zealand]], the stoat mostly feeds on birds, including the rare kiwi, kaka, mohua, yellow-crowned parakeet, and New Zealand dotterel.<ref name=":2" />

==Distribution and Habitat==
Stoats live in [[temperate]], [[subarctic]] northern areas. They live in parts of [[Europe]], [[Asia]], and [[North America]]. They were brought to [[New Zealand]] to kill [[rabbit]]s. Unfortunately, they also killed many of the native New Zealand birds.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JgAMbNSt8ikC&pg=PA|title=Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference|last1=Wilson|first1=Don E.|last2=Reeder|first2=DeeAnn M.|date=2005|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8221-0|language=en}}</ref>

The stoat lives throughout [[North America]], [[Europe]], and [[Asia]], from [[Greenland]] and the Canadian and Siberian Arctic islands. Stoats in North America are found throughout [[Alaska]] and [[Canada]] south through most of the northern United States to central [[California]], northern [[Arizona]], northern [[New Mexico]], [[Iowa]], the Great Lakes region, [[New England]], and [[Pennsylvania]], but are absent from most of the Great Plains, and the Southeastern United States. The stoat in Europe is found as far south as in Portugal. It also lives in most islands with the except [[Iceland]], [[Svalbard]], the Mediterranean islands and some small North Atlantic islands. In [[Japan]], it is lives in the central mountains (northern and central Japan Alps) to northern part of Honshu (mainly above 1,200 m) and [[Hokkaidō]].<ref name=":0" />

==Reproduction==
Stoats live alone and are [[territorial]]. The gestation period is usually around 300 days. After mating in the summer, the kits will not be born until the following spring. Female stoats spend almost all their lives either pregnant or in heat.They [[mate]] once a year and have several babies, which are called kits. The kits may not develop for 8–9 months after the female becomes pregnant. When weather conditions are good and there is plenty of food, the kits begin to grow and are born within a month. The males do not help raise the babies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=GULAMHUSEIN|first1=A. P.|last2=TAM|first2=W. H.|title=Reproduction in the Male Stoat, Mustela Erminea|date=1974-12-01|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1530/jrf.0.0410303|journal=Reproduction|volume=41|issue=2|pages=303–312|doi=10.1530/jrf.0.0410303|pmid=4452973|s2cid=42342901 |issn=1470-1626}}</ref>

Males become sexually mature at 10–11 months. Females become sexually mature at the age of 2–3 weeks whilst still blind, deaf and hairless.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Amstislavsky|first1=S.|last2=Ternovskaya|first2=Y.|date=2000|title=Reproduction in mustelids.|journal=Animal Reproduction Science|volume=60-61|pages=571–581|doi=10.1016/S0378-4320(00)00126-3|pmid=10844225|s2cid=29962246}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{wikispecies|Mustelidae}}

[[Category:Mustelids]]
[[Category:Mammals of Asia]]
[[Category:Mammals of Europe]]
[[Category:Mammals of North America]]