Weasel
Weasels are probably the UKs most numerous and smallest carnivores, and are found in a range of habitats where food is plentiful. They have brown or ginger fur above and below are a creamy white colour with a long, sinuous body and a short tail. Males are larger than females and the two sexes live in separate territories.
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Weasels prey consists mostly of mice and voles, and it is their diminutive proportions that allow them to hunt their prey so successfully as they are small enough to access and search the networks of tight tunnels and burrows where mice and voles live. They sometimes take over the homes of their prey for themselves and will have several dens in their territory that they visit periodically, even lining the dens with the fur of their prey in cold weather. Weasels may also eat birds, eggs and young rabbits if food is scarce. Their relative, the stoat, is a ferocious hunter which feeds almost exclusively on rabbit, and can be distinguished from the weasel by its larger size and longer tail which is tipped with black.
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