Hi! I’m looking for rodents. . .
Jim Frey took this photo in Bear Valley Springs of a Longtailed Weasel that was living in his backyard last year.
Jim said that the Longtailed Weasel (Neogale frenata) hung around for several weeks until it had eaten all of the gophers in the yard, and then moved on to find a better stocked hunting ground.
Long-tailed Weasels are members of Mustelidae, a family of mammals that includes weasels, mink, ferrets, martens, ermine, otters, badgers and wolverines. Skunks and raccoons, however, are not mustelids.
Long-tailed Weasels are common in the Tehachapi Mountains, but they are infrequently seen, because they are very active and don’t often stay long in the same place. Weasels are energetic, and they bound and bounce over the landscape, often stopping to rise upright and survey their surroundings. They can be mistaken for slender ground squirrels when they are running.
They don’t dig their own burrows, but will often commandeer old squirrel, chipmunk or gopher holes.
Weasels have bodies that are about a foot long, with long slender tails that have a black tip on the end. In colder areas, they can molt into an all-white coat to help them blend in with snow, and will then turn back into the more familiar light-brown coat with a yellowish belly in spring. In warmer areas, like in much of Southern California, Long-tailed Weasels maintain
their brown coloration year-round. Like this weasel that Jim photographed, they may also have white markings on their face that contrasts with their dark ears and muzzle.
Weasels eat exclusively meat, and typically prey on rodents like mice, rats, voles, gophers, etc. They may also take eggs, ground birds, rabbits, reptiles and some insects.
The Nuwä (Kawaiisu or Southern Paiute) word for weasel is süsüga, pronounced suh-SUH-ga.