Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Mustelidae > Mustela > Mustela nivalis

Mustela nivalis (Least Weasel)

Synonyms:
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

The least weasel (Mustela nivalis), or simply weasel in the UK, is the smallest member of the genus Mustela and of the family Mustelidae (as well as the smallest of the Carnivora), native to Eurasia, North America and North Africa, though it has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Malta, Crete, Bermuda, Madeira Island, the Azores, the Canary Islands, Sao Tome, the Falkland Islands, Argentina and Chile. It is classed as being of least concern by the IUCN, due to its wide distribution and presumed large population.
View Wikipedia Record: Mustela nivalis

Infraspecies

Mustela nivalis aistoodonnivalis
Mustela nivalis allegheniensis (Pygmy weasel)
Mustela nivalis boccamela (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis campestris (Pygmy weasel)
Mustela nivalis caucasica (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis eskimo (Least weasel)
Mustela nivalis formosana
Mustela nivalis heptneri
Mustela nivalis kudarensis
Mustela nivalis mosanensis (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis namiyei (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis nivalis (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis numidica (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis pallida (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis pygmaea (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis rixosa
Mustela nivalis rossica
Mustela nivalis russelliana (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis stoliczkana (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis subpalmata (Attributes)
Mustela nivalis tonkinensis (Weasel)
Mustela nivalis vulgaris (Weasel)

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Mustela nivalis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
20
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 7.03
EDGE Score: 2.08
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  47 grams
Birth Weight [1]  3 grams
Male Weight [3]  115 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Endothermic [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  4 months
Male Maturity [1]  4 months
Gestation [1]  36 days
Litter Size [1]  5
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [1]  9 years
Nocturnal [4]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  10 inches (26 cm)
Weaning [1]  39 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (391)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Irano-Anatolian Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan No
Japan Japan No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No
Mountains of Central Asia Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

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
♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 5Ecology of Commanster
♦ 6Exploring the Denali Food Web, ParkWise, National Park Service
♦ 7Microtus miurus (Rodentia: Cricetidae), F. RUSSELL COLE AND DON E. WILSON, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 42(855):75–89 (2010)
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 9Martes zibellina (Carnivora: Mustelidae), VLADIMIR G. MONAKHOV, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 43(876):75–86 (2011)
♦ 10Nunn, C. L., and S. Altizer. 2005. The Global Mammal Parasite Database: An Online Resource for Infectious Disease Records in Wild Primates. Evolutionary Anthroplogy 14:1-2.
♦ 11Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 12International Flea Database
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