bbc.co.uk navigation

A small group of oriental clawed otters facing the camera

Weasel family

Weasels and their relatives the otters, badgers and wolverines form the family mustelidae. This is the largest family of carnivores, found everywhere except Antarctica, Australia, Madagascar and some other, smaller islands. Typically small mammals they range in size from the tiny least weasel, that is no bigger than a mouse; to the giant otter that can measure over two metres in length.

Scientific name: Mustelidae

Rank: Family

Common names:

Mustelids

Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Weasel family taxa

The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

Explore this group

When they lived

Discover the other animals and plants that lived during the following geological time periods.

About

The Mustelidae (from Latin mustela, weasel), are a family of carnivorous mammals, commonly referred to as the weasel family. Mustelids are diverse and the largest family in the order Carnivora. The internal classification still seems to be rather unsettled, with rival proposals containing between two and eight subfamilies. One study published in 2008 questions the long-accepted Mustelinae subfamily, and suggests the Mustelidae consist of four major clades and three much smaller lineages.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Classification

  1. Life
  2. Animals
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Mammals
  5. Carnivora
  6. Weasel family

BBC News about Weasel family

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.