Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Mustelidae > Mustela > Mustela eversmanii

Mustela eversmanii (Steppe Polecat)

Synonyms: Mustela eversmannii

Wikipedia Abstract

The steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), also known as the white or masked polecat, is a species of mustelid native to Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN because of its wide distribution, occurrence in a number of protected areas, and tolerance to some degree of habitat modification. It is generally of a very light yellowish colour, with dark limbs and a dark mask across the face. Compared to its relative, the European polecat, the steppe polecat is larger in size and has a more powerfully built skull.
View Wikipedia Record: Mustela eversmanii

Infraspecies

Mustela eversmanii admirata (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii amurensis (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii eversmanii (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii hungarica (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii larvatus (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii michnoi (European polecat)
Mustela eversmanii talassicus (European polecat)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
17
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.31
EDGE Score: 1.84
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.976 lbs (1.35 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  6 grams
Male Weight [3]  2.083 lbs (945 g)
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Endothermic [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  10 months 19 days
Male Maturity [1]  10 months 19 days
Gestation [1]  36 days
Litter Size [1]  9
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  9 years
Nocturnal [2]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  18 inches (45 cm)
Weaning [1]  51 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Himalaya Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan No
Mountains of Central Asia Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan No
Mountains of Southwest China China, Myanmar No

Prey / Diet

Ochotona curzoniae (Plateau Pika)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a keystone species for biodiversity on the Tibetan plateau, Andrew T. Smith and J. Marc Foggin, Animal Conservation (1999) 2, 235–240
♦ 5International Flea Database
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0