Weasels Are Built for the Hunt | Hacker News Reader

Weasels Are Built for the Hunt

nytimes.com

42 pointsVigier16 comments

I recently watched a wild weasel, and learned something that should have been obvious: they are excellent tree climbers! Not "they can eventually make it up a tree", but almost "custom designed for the purpose".

This makes sense, as they are closely related to martens, who are agile enough in trees to chase down and eat grey squirrels[1]. But somehow I'd never made the connection, and had thought of weasels as ground-bound.

[1] https://theconversation.com/resurgent-pine-martens-could-be-...

I know this thread is about Weasels... but can I just use this opportunity to drop a recommendation for one of the funniest documentaries ever made: https://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Excellence-Ferrets/dp/B000RL2...

(I think it's available to stream on Prime)

Thanks for the link to that. I'd seen parts of it, but hadn't known they'd come from a larger documentary.

All the talk about breeding is a bit hard for me to listen to. I know it's different in the US, but here in the UK rescues are full of ferrets that have been found wandering or have been given over.

Or sometimes your vet knows you have ferrets and calls you up asking if you want to adopt one that was found wandering and hasn't been claimed (our youngest came to us that way)

I have Prime, but I can't seem to figure out how to stream it - it only shows the option if I'm not logged in. Anyone know where to click?

Are you sure it's available to stream?

Weasels are amazing creatures, highly intelligent, playful, and very friendly. It is a shame that so many negative misconceptions persist and are perpetually reinforced in the media, especially movies where ferrets are used as a comedic stand in for "vicious wild animal". Hopefully this article will help change that.

There are few things more charming and bizarrely cute than the 'Weasel War Dance'.

Primates are not the only game in town.

http://youtu.be/uZOjwzInj2g

That video is the cure for depression, in cuddly form.

Here's the source video of that GIF I would imagine everyone's seen: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=476393822444

The same author posted a different video of the same tree to YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYlhQKmDovk

Then there's this video of a pet (edge-case rescue) least weasel, which is a definite candidate for relevancy here (along with all the other videos in the associated YT account): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy6oaDzy0-Q

Also, I'm not sure if you'll see it, but YT's video relevancy/subject analysis system is neat: http://i.imgur.com/zvLG5nu.png

Weasel story. At a small software company I worked for in the early 1990s, management included staff in a rebranding exercise. It was suggested (by management) that a majestic eagle could represent the firm and appear in corporate imagery. Reasonable.

But we were a blue chip financial software company serving the Corporate Treasury function so several of us in R&D endorsed the weasel as a superior image. We invoked Stephen Wright: "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." Clearly a trustworthy, safe, and reliable choice for our clients.

Management went with the eagle.

And now I learn that weasels are also prolific hunters?? Sigh.

There are some people who hunt using mink (a type of mustelid). eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_wuVD1eHc

It's mostly one guy in the Salt Lake City area who enjoys the challenge and uses his video channel to convince a few others to do the same. He's a real expert in animal handling whose obsession with hunting and willfulness (no one could convince him that minks were impossible to tame) seem to help him relate to mustelids. But minks' stubborn and feisty temperaments make them some of the most difficult animals of their size for most people to keep as pets. I follow this community pretty closely.

I feel that they should have included more otter and weasel pictures. Because otters and weasels are super cute.

Do one thing, and do it well.

The flip-side: Specialization is for insects.

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