Warning: Video is about a predator species. Things might get vicious. Especially if you're a rabbit lover.
Stoats are pretty wild. Their movements are almost serpentine, despite the fact that they have four feet. It's like watching a snake with fur.
Second warning: The narrator pronounces it "stauts." Don't know if he's Canadian, but the pronunciation could drive you mad.
2 comments:
My first thought was of Riki Tiki Tavi when I watched this and then I went on to see what the difference is between stoats (weasels) and mongooses. It turns out there are several with the first being that stoats (weasels) are more closely related to dogs while mongooses belong to the civit family (as in cats). Weird, eh?
The stoats in the video are also known as ermine - white coats in winter that were widely used as the linings of royal and religious garments. They really are remarkably vicious creatures and another example of the serious mistakes made by English settlers in New Zealand where they were introduced in the 19th century to rid the country of rabbits (another non-native invasive species). What they've done there is to annihilate most of the ground nesting birds. It's not the stoat's fault that people are stupid.
Another note in wikipedia mentioned that the word 'stoat' comes from the Dutch root word 'stout' - meaning bold. That may answer the uncomfortable pronunciation we listened to.
Kipling's loyal mongoose. Funny thing about mongooses being more closely related to cats while weasels are more closely related to dogs. I think that would count as an example of convergent evolution, although it's a subtle one because they're all furry mammals and not too distantly related to begin with. The caniform (doglike) sub-order is larger than the feliform (catlike) one. Bears are caniform, for example, as are seals and walruses, even though taxonomically they're considered pinnipeds rather than carnivores proper. Bears are the largest doglike mammals, while big catlike mammals are just big cats. And there are none that are semi-aquatic to the point seals are. But how much of this could have gone the other way? Evolution may go one way rather than another just because one animal population was in a certain place at a certain time.
The native bird population of New Zealand took a big hit when the English started settling there, via Australia (where the rabbit is considered a huge pest.) The ignorance of the times. People didn't think about complex ecologies and how they were so easy to upset. Australia's native animals were hardier against human and animal migration, although the Tasmanian wolf was a sad casualty.
Interesting fact about the origins of the word "stoat." They aren't stout in the physical sense for the most part, but I can see the "bold" thing.
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