Weasel
Okay, what's the difference between a stoat and a weasel?
A weasel is weasily identified but a stoat is stoatally different.
Yes, I know, and I'm sorry but not VERY sorry.
If you don't know how to tell the difference there is more information here. But basically, it's that the stoat is bigger with a stouter (that's stouter not stoater) build, and it has a black tip to its tail.
I saw a stoat in the woods near Golden Acre Park in Leeds, some years ago and I knew about the black tip and it obligingly turned round and showed it to me. But I had never seen a weasel and I had always wanted to see one.
And then, last Wednesday, as Silverback and I were driving along one of the lovely country lanes in the Gower Peninsula, a weasel ran across the road in front of the car. It was carrying something in its mouth - perhaps something that it had killed, perhaps one of its babies as I know that weasels do move them around. But I could see at once what it was - it was so much smaller and lighter than a stoat and I loved its running action. "Like a stretched mouse" said Silverback, accurately.
It was gone into the verge in seconds, but I'll always remember that moment. There's something about seeing wildlife in its natural habitat that I really love.
A weasel is weasily identified but a stoat is stoatally different.
Yes, I know, and I'm sorry but not VERY sorry.
If you don't know how to tell the difference there is more information here. But basically, it's that the stoat is bigger with a stouter (that's stouter not stoater) build, and it has a black tip to its tail.
I saw a stoat in the woods near Golden Acre Park in Leeds, some years ago and I knew about the black tip and it obligingly turned round and showed it to me. But I had never seen a weasel and I had always wanted to see one.
And then, last Wednesday, as Silverback and I were driving along one of the lovely country lanes in the Gower Peninsula, a weasel ran across the road in front of the car. It was carrying something in its mouth - perhaps something that it had killed, perhaps one of its babies as I know that weasels do move them around. But I could see at once what it was - it was so much smaller and lighter than a stoat and I loved its running action. "Like a stretched mouse" said Silverback, accurately.
It was gone into the verge in seconds, but I'll always remember that moment. There's something about seeing wildlife in its natural habitat that I really love.
posted by Daphne at 8:01 pm
4 Comments:
Thank goodness the weasel's natural habitat included a road you could see it run across and thank goodness also your car did not squash. That would have been stoatally horrible.
I quite agree with you. In 1984 Mrs. RWP and I were on an auto ferry between the mainland of Canada and Victoria Island and saw several eagles flying in Freedom Pass. I still remember the feeling. It was exhilarating!
Good! Who needs to go on safari in Africa when you can safari in the UK! Who needs elephants, rhinos and giraffes when you can have weasels, foxes, badgers, water voles, wood pigeons and yes - even wood lice! Fascinating to watch.
So the trip to the zoo is off then ?
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