Weasel family: representatives and their description (photo). Martens A small predatory animal from the order of mustelids

Rod of Wolverine

Genus Weasel and Ferrets

Ermine

Rod Bandages

Rod Badgers

Rod of the Otter

Clan of Kalan

A large group of carnivorous mammals with diverse adaptations. This includes such well-known animals as sable, badger, otter, ferret, American skunk... From common ground ancestors with mustelids, real seals... In total, there are more than 70 species in the family, in the fauna of Russia there are 17-18 species of mustelids (of which one - the American mink - has been acclimatized).

These are most often small, squat elongated, usually short-tailed animals. The weasel belonging to this family is the smallest representative of the order of carnivores, weighing no more than 200 g, while the largest weasel sea otter weighs up to 45 kg. A small head with short, rounded ears sits on a long, muscular neck: they rightly say about small weasels - where the head passes, the body also passes. The limbs are shortened, usually plantigrade, in semi-aquatic forms with a swimming membrane.

The hair coat is most often fluffy, thick, especially in otters living in vodekalana; in badgers, on the other hand, the fur is hard and sparse, more like bristles. The color of the whole body or at least the upper part is usually monochromatic brown, but it can be with a contrasting pattern of dark and light spots and stripes ( demonstration coloring). Some small inhabitants of northern latitudes (weasel, ermine) change their dark coat to white for the winter.

The demonstration type of coloration is usually combined with the strong development of special scent glands. They are located in the tail region, produce a harsh and foul-smelling secret, some species (primarily those living in America skunks) when defending, they throw it towards the enemy.

Weasels are widespread almost all over the world: they have mastered forests, deserts and mountains, they live in freshwater reservoirs and on the sea coasts. These are mainly land animals, among them there are few poison dart frogs, and even they are inferior in skill to some tropical civetres. Among the mustelids there are semi-aquatic animals - otters, sea otters. These animals most often live alone, they are territorial and for the most part are not inclined to distant migrations. Burrows usually serve as shelters, which the animals "borrow" from the victims they have eaten or dig themselves, sometimes complex perennial ones; tree dwellers take refuge in hollows. Badgers living in northern forests fall asleep for the winter, like bears.

Most species are carnivores, feeding almost exclusively on small rodents and birds, others are omnivores; semi-aquatic animals prefer fish. There are two main types of mustelids according to their habits. Some of them are very mobile, nimble, move in short leaps with a strongly arched back, or, as it were, "creep" along the ground among thick grass. These are small animals like an ermine or a ferret that spend most of their time examining holes and crevices in rocks in search of rodents; similar behavior in otters. They are active hunters, tracking down prey in its hiding places or catching it in the water. Others are rather heavy, not very mobile, thick. Such are the builders and inhabitants of vast underground holes - badgers and skunks, many of them are the most skillful diggers among carnivorous mammals. By the way they get food, such hulks are typical "gatherers".

These animals are guided mainly with the help of hearing, sense of smell and sight are less developed. The sounds emitted by many weasels resemble "chirping". The general level of mental activity is lower than that of canines and bears: among weasels there are few species that can be trained.

For the breeding of mustelids, a very prolonged gestation period is characteristic: in some martens, it lasts up to a year. This is caused by a delay in the development of embryos, the causes of which are still unknown. Cubs in a litter range from 1-2 (for sea otters) to 16-18. By the nature of development, martens, like all carnivores, belong to “ chick”Type. But some species show “ follow reflex”Peculiar to" brood"type: cubs at a certain age relentlessly follow the female or the object that they are" captured”As a mother.

Many mouse-eating weasels are important natural regulators of the number of rodents in nature. Some species - first of all sable, otter, sea otter - possess very valuable fur and are among the most important objects of the fur trade. Some members of the family - first of all, the American mink, the same sable - are bred at fur farms.

For the most part, these are common, numerous species. However, many fur-bearing animals in the recent past were on the verge of destruction due to excessive fishing, became very rare. At present, they are protected, special work is being carried out to restore their numbers (first of all, this applies to the sea otter, sable).

The weasel family unites many phylogenetically related species, but very different adaptive features, body structure and lifestyle.

Most of them are small in size, although there are also medium ones. Their body weight varies from 100 grams to 40 kg, and their length is from 15 to 150 cm. The body is massive, elongated and very flexible.

The weasel family, or rather its representatives, is distinguished by a developed hairline. The coat color is varied. There are monophonic, spotted, and striped. There are species in which the coat is darker below and lighter on top. According to the seasons, such animals change their splendor and density.

Weasel family: representatives

This entire family is divided into three subfamilies: martens, skunks, badgers and otters.

Let's start with the first ...

Marten subfamily

1. Weasel is the smallest animal with a slender elongated body. It is found where the most rodents are.
2. Ermine. It looks like a weasel, but it is larger. Another distinctive feature is the black tip of the tail. This fur-bearing animal of the weasel family reproduces once a year.
3. Solongoy. It is larger than an ermine. As a rule, representatives of this species inhabit the treeless mountains and plains of Central Asia, the East and China. Mates in winter and spring. The duration of the female's gestation is about 33 days.
4. Columns. A furry animal with a dense body, the length of which reaches 39 centimeters. The end of the muzzle is white, and a black mask is “put on” around the eyes. The tail is usually brighter than the back.
5. European and These animals live near the reservoir. They dive and swim well. They mate, as a rule, in the spring.
6. Ferrets. There are three varieties of them: steppe, black and black-footed. There is another species - the African ferret - this is the albinoid form of black. The largest of all is steppe.
7. Bandaging. A furry animal that lives in steppes, deserts and semi-deserts.
8. Lesnaya and Fur of these animals is very thick and beautiful. In the stone one it is light, and in the forest one it is dark brown.
9. Sable. Outwardly, it resembles a marten, only the tail is shorter. This animal is widespread in the territory of the former USSR.
10. Ilka - this animal is larger than the previously described species. Weight reaches 8 kg.
11. Kharza is a strong animal with an elongated body. Its coat is smooth, rough, shiny.
12. Taira is an inhabitant of the forests of South, Central America and South Mexico.
13. Grisons. There are two types of them: small grisons and grisons. They live in wooded and open areas.
14. Zorilla lives in Africa
15. The spotted ferret lives in North Africa
16. Wolverine is an animal with a massive body, powerful, wide paws. Weight reaches 19 kg.

Honey badger - the animal belongs to a monotypic subfamily.

This is a large animal, the body length of which reaches 77 cm. The body is flattened, massive, and short.

The weasel family is further subdivided into the subfamily of badgers.

Representatives:

1. Common badger. Distributed in the territory of the former USSR. The body length reaches 90 cm, and the tail - 24 cm.
2. American badger. The body reaches 74 cm in length and 10 kg in body weight.
3. The pig badger is common in the plains and mountains. The body weight reaches 14 kg, and the length is 70 cm.
4. The ferret badger bears the general name of three peculiar animals at once. They are combined into the genus Helictis. They all have thick fur. They live in South Asia.

The weasel family is further subdivided into the subfamily of stinkers.

Representatives:

1. The striped skunk lives from southern Canada to northern Mexico. The body length is no more than 38 cm, and the tail is 44 cm. The weight does not exceed 2.5 kg.
2. The spotted skunk is common in Central America and the United States. The mass of the animal is not more than 1 kg.
3. The Patagonian skunk lives within South America. It reaches 49 cm in length.
4. White-nosed skunk. Almost the entire body is covered with black hair, and the tail, back and end of the muzzle are white on top.

There is also a subfamily of otters, these include: the common otter, as well as the Canadian, feline, Indian and others.

After reading our article, you briefly got acquainted with the amazing family of weasels.

Sable (MartesZibelina)

A representative of the genus of martens, a close relative of the pine marten. In males, body length is 38-58 cm, weight is up to 1.9 kg, females are somewhat smaller. The body is elongated, very flexible, on relatively short legs, which is why the animal constantly keeps with a strongly arched back. The tail is about a third of the body length. The paws are wide, especially in winter fur, which is associated with the land-based lifestyle of the sable. The head is wedge-shaped, with a pointed muzzle, looks very large, especially in summer. The ears are large, triangular in shape with a wide base.

The fur is thick, soft, fluffy. In winter, it is very lush, lighter than summer, it covers pads and claws on its paws. The color of the fur on the body in summer is monotonous dark brown, the tail and paws are black-brown. In winter, the fur is colored lighter, the basic tone varies from sandy-yellow to brownish-black, the head is lighter than the body, and a light blurred spot often appears on the throat.

The range of the sable covers almost the entire taiga zone of Eurasia from the northern Cis-Urals to the Pacific coast and adjacent islands. Its main part belongs to Russia, covering the entire vast territory of Siberia and the Far East. From other countries, sable is found only in Mongolia, in northeastern China, in Korea and on the northernmost island of Japan - Hokkaido.

The main habitat of the sable is the coniferous taiga. He prefers dark coniferous forests - damp, gloomy, with a highly developed moss cover, rather littered with windblows. On the East Siberian Plateau, sable also lives in larch forests. Sable is also common among pine forests, along the edges of moss bogs. Where it is of little concern, it is found in forests that come close to settlements and mines. This small predator, unlike the marten, avoids only large cities and especially active logging areas.

In the life of a sable, two periods alternate - sedentary and nomadic. In the first of them, the animal is tied to a certain area, within the boundaries of which it keeps most often all its life. Only forest fires, deforestation or some other serious reason can force him to leave the site. In a hungry winter time, when it takes a lot of time to find food places, the animal leads an almost semi-nomadic lifestyle.

In its vast habitat, the sable has several permanent shelters, summer and winter, and even more temporary ones. This predator almost never makes a haven himself, but uses what the taiga provides him, only adapting various kinds of voids to his needs. These are most often niches under inverted areas, between stones in placers, hollows in lying logs or standing trees. A permanent refuge, in which the animal lives for 2-3 years in a row, always has a nesting chamber, its bottom is covered with bedding. Not far from the burrow, a latrine is set up, to which a trail or snowy trench leads.

The sable is predominantly a land animal, well adapted to life in snowy winters. Thanks to its wide paws, it moves freely enough on a snowy surface. Sable feels insecure on trees, rarely climbs on them of its own accord. He can jump from tree to tree only if their crowns are closed. This small predator goes into the water only in case of extreme need, because of the rapidly wetting fur it swims with difficulty.

Of the senses, the sable has the best developed sense of smell, which allows it to unmistakably find food under the thickness of the snow. If a dog or a person approaches a nest with a brood, the female growls muffledly, warning the cubs of danger. And when it is necessary to fiercely defend against a larger animal pressing on it, the sable “chirps”. During mating games, he publishes a kind of meowing sounds.

The sable is an omnivorous predator. Most often, it eats mouse-like rodents, chipmunks, protein is of less importance. Unlike many other predators, sable catches and eats moles and shrews in significant quantities. Large males manage to hunt hares. In winter, the sable often feeds on carrion: near the corpse of a large ungulate, several animals usually feed, making temporary shelters nearby. Among birds, the first place is occupied by small passerines - adults, chicks, clutches; then chicken - partridge, black grouse. In the Far East, sable, like many other predatory inhabitants of these regions, fattens in summer on spawning of anadromous fish. This animal is a big hunter of bee honey: having found a hollow with bees in winter, it visits it until it destroys all its contents - both combs with honey and larvae, and adult bees.

Vegetable feeds - fruits and berries - occupy an important place in the diet of the sable. During the years of the cedar harvest, its nuts serve as one of its main forages. The sable uses supplies made by other animals and birds - chipmunks, squirrels, red voles, nutcrackers. This fluffy animal willingly eats berries: in the second half of summer and autumn - everything that turns red on the bushes in winter digs out from under the shallow snow what remains hanging on the branches - lingonberries, blueberries, cloudberries. If bunches of mountain ash are available to him, he willingly eats them too.

Sable goes in search of food at any time of the day. The sable catches mouse-like rodents, moles, pikas, chipmunks, hiding or watching on the ground, like a cat.

The main competitors of the sable for murine rodents are the ermine and Siberian weasel. These small predators live in almost the same places and hunt the same prey that is more accessible to them. The sable has a special relationship with the pine marten. The ranges of these two closely related species overlap in the Urals and in the Pechora basin. There is little competition between them, since the marten lives mainly in the upper tier of the taiga, and the sable lives in the lower one. But in the same places, hunters occasionally hunt animals that are similar in some ways to a sable, in others - to a marten. Such "intermediate" individuals are hybrids between these two predators, they are called "kidases".

Breeding patterns of sable have long remained a mystery. The rutting time is in February-March. In nature, at this time in sables, an increase in activity is indeed noted: the so-called "false rut" sets in. However, experiments on cell breeding of sables led to the discovery of a phenomenon previously completely unknown in the life of this predator - a long delay in embryonic development, the so-called "latent period". It turned out that in fact the rut in sables takes place in the summer, and the total duration of pregnancy is 8-9 months.

Cubs will be born the following spring - most often in April, the number of young in a litter is 2-5. As a brood nest, the mother sable uses one of the permanent shelters, only more carefully lining it with hay, moss, and the wool of eaten rodents. Newborns are helpless, weighing about 30 grams. By the end of the first month of life, the ears open, after another week - the eyes. From this moment, the sable animals gradually begin to feed themselves with meat, learn to catch a bird or mouse brought by their mother. The female protects her offspring. At the age of one and a half months, when the young first leave the nest, they are still very awkward, they cannot climb trees. By July, when the next rut begins in the female, they almost reach the size of adults, move on to an independent solitary life.

The main “wealth” of the sable, which brought him so many troubles on the part of man, is its valuable fur. Siberian peoples from time immemorial paid tribute. After the development of the Siberian expanses of Russia, the glory of owning sable lands passed to her: they began to call sables "Russians", their skins were necessarily included in the number of ambassadorial gifts. Sable furs were used for hats, fur coats or their lining, "walking in sables" was considered prestigious in Russia and Europe, a sign of high prosperity. The great demand for skins and the low prices set for them by the buyers determined the truly predatory nature of the sable trade. As a result, the number of the beast has sharply decreased.

Pine marten (MartesMartes)

One of the most typical representatives of the marten genus, as well as the marten family as a whole. The closest relative of the pine marten is the sable, an inhabitant of the Siberian taiga.

This animal is of medium size: body length varies between 38-58 cm, weight is about 1.5 kg. The tail is about half the length of the body (17-26 cm). The claws are very sharp, curved, which is associated with a predominantly arboreal lifestyle. The head is small, with a pointed muzzle, ears with rounded tops.

The coat is somewhat coarser and not as luxuriant as that of the sable. The general color tone of winter fur is reddish-chestnut with a highly developed grayish-fawn admixture. The belly is colored the same as the back, the legs and the end of the tail are darker. The head is the same color as the body, ears with a light outline along the edge, on the throat and the lower surface of the neck there is a large light spot with sharp borders. The color of the spot is yellowish-cream, which is why this marten is called "yellowish".

The range of the species extends over the forest areas of Europe, the Caucasus, the north of Asia Minor and the Iranian Highlands, in the east it extends somewhat in the Trans-Urals. In Russia, the marten region is distributed in the north and center of the European part, almost all of the Urals and in the south of Western Siberia.

This animal is found in forests of various types, but prefers those with more spruce and conifers close to it. Equally willingly, this marten settles both on the plain and in the mountain forests, but in the mountains it is nevertheless more often found in the valleys of rivers and streams. The pine marten does not avoid close proximity to humans, settling in old clearings. In the settlements themselves, it prefers not to settle, but sometimes it is found in old parks.

Forest martens live sedentary, adhering to certain habitats. The marten marks the points constantly visited by her on its site with urine. There are several shelters at each site of the pine marten. In summer and autumn, animals usually take refuge in the hollows of old trees - oak, cedar, fir. At the end of winter, when there is a lot of snow, the marten prefers to take shelter for rest in the fallen-trees covered with snow, and looks for voids in the lying wells. In coniferous forests, where there are few hollow trees, the marten makes temporary shelters in outdoor squirrel nests-gains.

The pine marten is a semi-woody animal that feels good both in the crowns of trees and on the ground. The marten easily jumps from tree to tree. But the yellow-cuckoo spends most of the time on the ground.

The pine marten is an omnivorous predator. The basis of food is made by mouse-like rodents; in the northern taiga, it often hunts squirrels. In winter, grouse birds are its prey. Climbing through the hollows, it hunts for small birds - nuthatches, woodpeckers, tits. When the marten manages to destroy the nests of ground wasps or bees, she greedily eats their larvae, she is also a big lover of bee honey. Berries and fruits occupy a special place in the diet of the pine marten. She eats them not only during ripening, but also in winter: the animal searches for blueberries and lingonberries under the snow, and picks mountain ash right from the branches.

The predator goes hunting most often in the evening and at night. Females in the summer, during the rearing period, often hunt during the day. In winter, if the year is successful and food is abundant, the marten rarely shows up from the shelter, in severe frosts and snowstorms it sits out for several days.

The marten rut takes place in July-August. Pregnancy lasts 8-9 months. Cubs are born in late March-April, the number of young in a litter is usually 3-5. The first days after giving birth, the female rarely leaves the hollow with newborn kunchats - completely helpless, covered with a rare short down, blind and deaf. After a few days, the cubs are covered with short brown fur, at the age of one month they see clearly. They begin to climb and jump from trees at the age of 2-2.5 months. At the end of summer, the female begins the next rut and she leaves her offspring for a new one. Sexual maturity occurs at 3-4 years, life expectancy is up to 15 years.

The pine marten is quite common in Russian forests, although it is not as numerous as the Siberian sable. She was hunted in large numbers for the sake of valuable fur. In medieval Russia, the skins of the yellow-bodied marten were so widely used in exchange trade that at one time inexpensive coins were in use, which received the name "kuna" by the name of the animal. Excessive hunting for this fur-bearing animal has led to its extinction from many places, but the protection measures adopted in recent decades - in particular, partial, and in some places a complete ban on hunting - have helped to restore the population of the pine marten almost in full.

Stone marten (MartesFoina)

The closest relative of the pine marten and sable, is very similar to them, differs in some features of morphology and lifestyle.

Sizes like a pine marten: body length 38-59 cm, weight up to 2.1 kg, tail slightly longer (23-32 cm). The head is more elongated, with a sharpened muzzle, with shorter and somewhat wider set ears. The paws of the stone marten are shorter than those of the forest marten, and weaker pubescence. The hair is relatively coarse, not as long as that of the forest. In terms of the general color tone, two martens - stone and forest - are very similar, the first is only slightly lighter. The most dramatic differences are in the color and shape of the throat spot. In a stone marten, it is always white (which is why it is called "white-haired"), large.

In its distribution, the stone marten is closely related to the mountains of the Front, Central and Central Asia. The distribution area of ​​the stone marten in our country is represented by three separate fragments. One of them is the North Caucasus, the other is the west of the Central Black Earth Region, the third fragment is the south of the Altai Mountains.

The habitats preferred by the stone marten are usually associated with mountains with little snow, up to 3.5-4 thousand meters high. It adheres to gorges and rocky placers with characteristic shrub vegetation. In the mountains of the Caucasus, the white-breasted marten often settles in deciduous forests. In Central and Southern Europe, it inhabits island forests in the steppe and forest-steppe, protective forest belts around arable fields, steep river banks and ravines.

Most of the time, the stone marten spends on the ground, where it mainly gets its food. In the art of climbing trees, she is inferior to the forest, she can jump from tree to tree. Swims well.

The stone marten is more tied to a certain territory than its congeners - the pine marten, and even more so the harza. She prefers to settle in crevices and cracks in rocks, voids between stones, in lowland forests it occupies abandoned badger and fox holes, hollows at a height of 2 to 9 m above the ground.

According to the characteristics of reproduction, the white-crested marten practically differs from the yellow-cuckoo.

The white-breasted marten is a fur-bearing animal, but in terms of the quality of the skin it is inferior to the yellow-crested and even more so to the sable, therefore its importance in the fur trade is not great. In Western Europe, it is protected in many places as an element of the cultural landscape.

Harza marten (MartesFlavigula)

A very peculiar representative of the marten genus, a native of the exotic countries of Southeast Asia, it is very large in size and bright in color. The body length of males of harza reaches 50-70 cm, weight is from 2.5 to 5.5 kg, females, as usual in mustelids, are noticeably smaller. The body is elongated, muscular, a small head with a pointed muzzle and not very large ears sits on a long neck. The legs are strong, relatively high, with wide feet. The fur cover of the kharza is rather short - it does not have the fluffiness that is characteristic of sable and pine marten.

The color of the harza is not similar to any other animal of our fauna, it is multicolored and contrasting. The top of the head and the back of the head are black-brown, the cheeks are slightly reddish, and the ears are black on the back. Starting from the back of the head along the top of the body, the fur is brownish-yellow with a golden tint, backward it gradually turns brown and becomes dark brown in the region of the sacrum and thighs, and on the tail and lower parts of the legs it is completely bluish-black. The sides and belly are bright yellow, on the chest and lower part it becomes a bright orange-gold. The chin and lower lip are pure white.

The area of ​​distribution of this exotic marten covers Southeast Asia (Indochina, part of the islands of the Malay archipelago), the Himalayan mountains, the southern and eastern lands of China, the Amur-Ussuri region in Russia. In this area, the kharza inhabits the primary, low-disturbed by human activity, high-trunk dense forests. In Primorye, kharza settles in dense mixed forests on the mountain slopes.

This marten is little tied to a specific habitat. Only females live in a settled period during the period of nest feeding of young animals. All the time, the animals go widely in search of prey, having neither favorite routes, nor more or less permanent shelters.

By the nature of food, the harza is a typical predator, more carnivorous than its relatives. Its diet is based on small deer: in the north of the range - musk deer, in the south - muntjak. In the spring, this large marten crushes deer and wild pigs, in the snowless period it grabs mouse-like rodents and chipmunks, in the winter it hunts squirrels in the crowns of trees, hares on the ground under the trees, and pikas among the stones. Of the birds, she more often than others catches hazel grouse, pheasant. In autumn, this marten eats fruits and nuts in small quantities.

Kharza is a very agile, brave and strong predator, capable of running long and fast in pursuit of prey. The harza hunts mainly on the ground. She pursues the chosen victim with a surge or waits for her in ambush. After a successful hunt, the brood of harza stays with the remains of the prey for 2-3 days, manages to eat musk deer almost entirely and leaves only large bones. Then the predators go further to wander through the forest.

In May, a married couple of harz martens, which persists throughout the life of the animals, have 2-3 cubs. They stay with their mother until next spring, participating in collective pens for musk deer. After the female leaves the grown harzits to bring new offspring, they prefer to keep and hunt together for some time.

On the territory of Russia, harza is rare, at present it is almost never hunted. Deforestation and the expansion of agricultural areas are increasingly reducing the area suitable for the life of this exotic predator, it is becoming less and less.

The genus of wolverine (Gulo)

Monotypic genus of the weasel family, quite close to the genus of martens. Large (body length up to 86 cm), the appearance is somewhat like that of small bears. The fur is long, the color is brown. Skull with well developed ridges. Canines and predatory teeth are powerful. Distributed in the taiga zone of Eurasia and North America. Territorial, they roam after the ungulates. Active predators, scavengers. They hunt for the hide.

Wolverine (GuloGulo)

This is a rather large animal of a heavy nature - in appearance it is something "in between" between a sable and a bear cub. Wolverine is a distant relative of martens and sables.

Wolverine is one of the largest representatives of the marten family: body length in males is 65-100 cm, weight is from 8 to 20 kg, tail is about a quarter of the body length. The proportions are atypical for mustelids, in which the body is most often elongated and short-legged: the wolverine has a rather short body and high limbs (height at the shoulders 35-50 cm), which seem incongruously large for such an animal due to extremely wide paws. All these are adaptations for movement on loose snow, in which the wolverine is similar to a lynx. The wolverine's head is medium-sized, with a large mouth, the eyes are small, the rounded ears are also small and barely protrude from the fur. Powerful teeth, especially canines and predatory ones, reflect the ability of the animal to gnaw large bones and chew tendons.

The fur cover in winter is rather long and rough, loosely fitting almost all over the body, only on the head the hair is short, adjoining; summer fur is much shorter. Particularly long spine in the back of the back and on a very fluffy tail. Fur is very durable, has a special property: the frost that has settled on it when breathing in the cold does not wet the hair and is easily shaken off. The color of the animal is rather peculiar. Its general background is from pale brown on the head and neck to dark brown, almost black on the paws. The entire body on the sides, from the tail to the neck, the horseshoe is covered by a wide light stripe - “harness”, which is connected with the ends in the region of the sacrum, across the forehead there is a “bridle” of the same color.

The area of ​​distribution of wolverine occupies the zone of northern forests and forest-tundra in Eurasia and North America. She is an inhabitant of mainly lowland and low-mountain taiga, along its periphery it lives in places in the forest-tundra, southern pine forests, coniferous-deciduous forests, during migrations, occasionally enters the polar islands. In some places, it keeps in remote areas of the foothill forest with windbreaks and rocky outcrops. In the vast swampy plains of Western Siberia, it can often be found on gently sloping ridge overgrown with rare pine forests among swamps. In the Far East, it is common in the valleys of small spawning rivers.

Wolverine does not tolerate extreme cold very well. At the same time, it is beneficial for this animal to live where the snow is deep and lies for a long time: thanks to its wide paws, the wolverine almost does not fall into the snow, especially if its surface is covered with a light crust.

Wolverine is a very agile and hardy animal. She spends most of the time on the ground, but she climbs trees quite well, she even knows how to go down from them upside down, but she never jumps from tree to tree. The wolverine usually moves in leaps, somewhat sideways and, as it were, stooping, all its movements look somehow awkward and sloppy.

Each adult animal has a certain hunting area, where it spends its whole life under favorable circumstances. At the time of breeding, wolverines, especially males, rather jealously guard their possessions from newcomers, actively mark their borders. In winter, however, these boundaries are almost undefined and not protected, predators living alone are quite tolerant of each other.

Outside the breeding season, the wolverine has no permanent dwellings. For recreation in summer and autumn, she finds herself a shelter under any inversion, stone, in a crevice. In winter, the wolverine digs temporary burrows in the snow for rest, and for breeding arranges a refuge like a bear den - another feature of this strange creature's similarity to a bear.

Wolverine is an omnivorous predator, but prefers ungulate meat to everything. The most frequent prey of the wolverine are reindeer and elk. In the southern taiga, roe deer (in Asia) or white-tailed deer (in America) are added to them, and in the mountainous regions - wild goats and rams, in Primorye - also musk deer. Of the smaller animals, partridge, wood grouse, ground squirrels - marmots, ground squirrels, sometimes catches pikas. In the spring-summer season, she searches for and destroys ground bird nests, willingly tears open the nests of ground wasps for their larvae. In the pre-winter period, the wolverine is especially active in feeding on plant foods - berries, nuts ..

A characteristic feature of the wolverine is its feeding on carrion, which in the harsh periods of life can form the basis of its diet. She eats the remains of the prey of large predators - a wolf, a bear. When a wolverine meets, it beats off prey from weaker animals - fox, sable, otter. In winter, she often searches for and eats animals that have died from lack of food, steals from traps of fur-bearing animals that have fallen into them, or simply picks up carcasses that have been stripped by hunters. When there is a massive spawning of salmonids, it eats up dead fish, of which a lot is lying along the banks of small rivers flowing into the ocean.

In the absence of ungulates, the wolverine behaves like a “gatherer”: in search of smaller prey, the animal looks into every corner, dodging through its hunting grounds. The predator examines large trees, hollows in them, looks under wells and stones. This cunning animal, walking along the track of a hunter-fisherman, examines and “cleans” the placed fishing gear and food supplies. This not too large predator himself is to be avoided and even fears, cases of wolverine attacks on people are unknown.

All processes associated with the breeding of offspring in a wolverine are strongly stretched over time. The female reproduces usually once every two years. The rut occurs in summer and early autumn. Intrauterine development lasts up to 10 months. In March-April, the female most often gives birth to 3-4 helpless cubs, covered with grayish-yellow hairs, weighing only about 100 grams. Up to 3-4 months, babies feed mainly on mother's milk, by the end of this period of development they are fully formed as little wolverines, spend most of their time with their mother outside the den, begin to receive meat. Unlike other mustelids, the male also takes an active part in maintaining the added family, bringing the food he has obtained. At 5-6 months, puppies begin to try to chase live prey themselves, while not yet larger than themselves. Wolverines spend their first winter together with the female, learning to hunt large ungulates, by the end of the cold weather they are already fully grown and the family disintegrates. The life span of this beast is up to 15 years.

Its value for a person is estimated in different ways. On the one hand, the wolverine is a fur-bearing animal, its durable and warm fur is valued by the local peoples of the North even higher than sable. However, very few people hunt especially for a wolverine: being very careful, it does not go well with all kinds of traps, so that it is most often hunted "along the way". On the other hand, in reindeer herding farms, this predator is considered harmful: during the breeding season of ungulates, it crushes young animals.

Wolverine, in the words of scientists, is a "naturally rare" species. But in some vast regions - first of all, in Europe - the boundaries of the species range and the number of animals have decreased below all "natural" standards. Therefore, at present, the wolverine is protected in most European countries and in the south of Canada, hunting for it is limited. Only in the taiga regions of Siberia, the preservation of this wonderful forest animal at the present time, as if nothing threatens.

Genus Weasel and Ferrets (Mustela)

The genus of the weasel family is divided into 5-6 subgenera, some of which are sometimes considered as independent genera. Includes 16-18 species; on the territory of Russia there are 8-9 species.

The main devices are associated with the extraction of rodents in burrows.

Small or medium-sized, short-tailed: body length 11-56 cm, weight 25 g to 2 kg, tail 1 / 4-1 / 2 body length. The body is strongly elongated, very flexible, with a long, muscular neck, on very short legs; the head is small, with a short muzzle, small rounded ears. The fur is short, tight or fluffy. The coloration of the upper body is monochromatic, brownish, the belly of the same color, lighter or darker; some species turn white for the winter. Skull with a shortened rostar and large medulla, in small ones almost without ridges. The auditory capsules are large and flattened.

Distributed throughout Eurasia, North America and northern South America, in northern Africa. They inhabit a variety of landscapes, in the mountains up to 3500 m above sea level. Terrestrial or semi-aquatic, territorial, solitary. Shelters - voids between stones, holes. They are very mobile, most are very aggressive. They feed mainly on small rodents, some also on amphibians and fish. Monogamous, breed once a year, rut in summer or early spring, pregnancy from 2-3 months (without diapause) to 8-10 months (with long diapause). In a litter of 3-10 cubs, at the age of 1.5-2 months, the "instinct of following" appears. Sexual maturity at 10-16 months. Life expectancy up to 10 years.

Many benefit from the extermination of rodents; some are objects of fur trade, some species are bred in fur farms.

Weasel (MustelaNivalis)

In the structure and habits of this animal, the features of a small burrow predator are most pronounced.

This is the smallest of all carnivorous mammals living on Earth: the body length of males varies within 13-26 cm, weight 40-250 g, females are one third smaller. The general warehouse is very specific and easily recognizable. The weasel has a thin, strongly elongated body with very short legs. The neck is long and rather powerful - only slightly thinner than the body, bears a narrow head with a small blunt muzzle and short ears that practically do not protrude upward. The eyes are large, dark, slightly protruding, short rounded ears are set wide apart. The tail is very short. The hair is short, not lush, close-fitting. The body coloration in summer is two-tone: the top is dark, the entire bottom, including the inner sides of the legs, partly the foot and hand, is white. The border between the coloration of the top and bottom is sharp. The tail is the same color as the back. In winter, the weasel turns white - in the north as a whole, in the south only partially.

This species is notable for its intraspecific variability. The forests of Siberia, the Far East, North America, and northern Europe are inhabited by the smallest weasels, short-tailed, dark-colored. Their prey is the smallest rodents. Large weasels, weighing 3-4 more than small congeners, long-tailed, very light, are common in the arid regions of the plains of Central and Western Asia and the Mediterranean. Their main prey - gerbils, jerboas, small ground squirrels - is large enough in comparison with the predator itself, so that a tiny Siberian weasel simply could not cope with them.

Weasel is very widespread - almost throughout Eurasia and North America, in the Atlas Mountains in the extreme northwest of Africa. In Russia, it is found everywhere. The animal is unpretentious in choosing habitats and inhabits almost all landscape-geographical zones. Weasel lives in forests of all types, in the steppe and forest-steppe, in the desert, tundra, in the mountains it rises to alpine meadows.

The area where the weasel lives and gets food is very small, only half a hectare-hectare. Nor does this tiny predator itself dig. The weasel mainly uses the dwellings of voles as shelters, the voids between stones, in heaps of brushwood, in stacks, woodburns or buildings, sometimes in low-lying hollows of trees. Within the site, the weasel has several permanent dwellings. In movements, the weasel is fast and tireless, in attack it is swift and lightning fast. The animal climbs well, swims relatively well.

Weasel is one of the most specialized predators: almost all of its diet consists of small mouse-like rodents. In the middle lane, it catches mainly voles and mice, in the steppe zone hamsters are added to them, in the deserts it feeds mainly on gerbils. Climbing through holes, the weasel quite often catches and eats shrews, which other four-legged predators disdain. If she stumbles upon a nest of a small bird with a clutch, she will certainly eat eggs or chicks. Very rarely, she eats amphibians, fish.

This predator usually kills its prey by biting through the skull in the occipital region. Accordingly, the size of the prey is largely determined not only by the balance of forces between it and the predator, but also by the possibility of affection to use this favorite technique.

Most of the weasel hunts at dusk and at night. She tirelessly prowls in dead wood, between roots, in haystacks and haystacks; Once on a colony of voles or gerbils, the animal rummages around every snout, in winter it constantly dives under the snow. When there is a lot of prey, the predator turns one of its shelters into a warehouse.

Information on the reproduction of this fairly common animal is more than scanty. All terms in the weasel's breeding cycle are highly variable, largely dependent on the abundance of food. Pregnant females come across from spring to autumn, most often in April, and young animals - all year round. Pregnancy is short, lasting about a month or a little longer. Most often there are 4-7 young in the litter, but sometimes up to 10. Cubs develop quite quickly, at the age of 3 weeks, milk teeth erupt and their eyes open, quite early (at the age of 4 weeks) they begin to react to the threat with a characteristic “chirping” sound, the release of an odorous secretion of the anal glands with fright. The predatory reflex in young weasels manifests itself already in the second month of life: at the age of 2-4 weeks they are still only interested in the prey torn by the female, at 5 weeks the babies are already able to gnaw dead mice on their own, and by the end of the 7th week they actively pursue and kill themselves small murine rodents.

This tiny predator treats a person without much fear, but even without friendliness, it practically does not tame.

Weasel is a fairly common animal, although it is very unevenly distributed. It has no commercial value, it is caught accidentally in fishing gear, placed on other animals. The importance of this tiny predator as a "exterminator" of rodents that harm agriculture is very great. Therefore, it must be protected in every possible way.

Solongoy (MustelaAltaica)

In terms of family ties, this animal is closer to the weasel and ermine, but more like a column in summer fur. The body length of males is 22-29 cm, weight is up to 350 g, females are one third less, rather fluffy tail about half the length of the body. The body color is reddish above and whitish below.

Solongoy is widespread in the mountainous regions of Central Asia (Himalayas, Tibet, Pamir, Tien Shan, Altai) and the Far East (Transbaikalia, Amur region, Manchuria, Korea). The species enters Russia at the northern edge of its range. Within these limits, Solongoy settles in arid foothill and mountain (up to 4000 meters above sea level) areas with negligible development of forest vegetation. In Central Asia, these are semi-deserts, alpine meadows, rocky river valleys, in the south of Siberia - forest-steppe areas, a treeless zone lying above the taiga belt, mountain tundra. The animal does not specifically avoid the proximity of human habitation and, on occasion, settles even in small villages.

The saltwort makes permanent housing for itself only for the breeding season, occupying the shelters of pikas, gerbils, water voles or muskrats. The rest of the time, he is content with small voids between the stones, under the dead wood.

Solongoy is a specialist in hunting small rodents - voles, mice, gerbils. In stony placers he catches pikas, in riverside thickets - hares and pheasants, in shallow water he catches a small fish. In the villages, Solongoy often visits warehouses for meat and fish. If you find him at the "crime scene", the brave predator rages, chirps and slowly retreats, not letting the prey out of his mouth.

The animal usually goes hunting at dusk. In winter, after heavy snowfalls, he does not appear from the shelters for some time.

Breeding begins with rutting in February-March, cubs covered with light embryonic down (usually 5-6) appear in a little over a month. Young salt leopards develop rather slowly: they see their sight only at the end of the first month of life, then their auditory canals open. At this time, they become very active, constantly tinkering, chasing each other, imitating an attack on prey. At the age of two months, they can already kill mice and small birds. They pass to independent life at the age of three months.

Although this animal cannot be called especially rare, it is small in number everywhere. The Primorsky subspecies of Solongoy is protected, included in the "Red Book of Russia".

Stoat (MustelaErminea)

In general, the animal is very similar to a weasel, but larger: males have body length up to 32 cm, weight up to 250 g, females are much smaller. The body is thin, strongly elongated, a long, very strong neck of almost the same thickness. The head is only slightly wider than the neck, with a pointed muzzle, short, widely spaced, rounded ears. The paws are very short, the swimming membrane is poorly developed between the toes. The winter fur is very thick and silky, tight-fitting. The bottom of the feet is densely pubescent, no calluses are visible in the winter fur.

In summer, the animal is sharply two-colored: the back, top of the head, sides of the body, the outer side of the paws, the tail are colored chocolate brown of varying intensity, and the belly, the bottom of the neck and head, the inner side of the paws are white or yellowish, sometimes lemon-yellow in the back the abdomen even predominates. A characteristic feature of the ermine color, which makes it possible to distinguish it from all other small mustelids, is the black end half of the tail. In winter, the ermine, like the weasel, partially or completely whitens, but the end of the tail remains black.

The ermine distribution area covers most of Europe, Asia and North America. It lives both in the plains and in the mountains.

Neither low temperatures nor high snow interfere with the normal life of the ermine. He feels worse during spring floods, as well as during winter thaws, when the snow is strongly compacted and prevents the animal from hunting for small rodents.

On this vast territory, ermine habitats are quite diverse, but it prefers to settle along gentle river valleys with oxbows, lakeside depressions. In forest areas, ermine often lives near settlements or even within their borders - in cattle yards and slaughterhouses, in warehouses and other buildings.

The ermine lives quite sedentary, at least in winter, with a good supply of food. Individual territories in floodplains are usually stretched along the coast, covering areas of 8-30 hectares, on terraces above floodplains, their sizes increase to 50-100 hectares. With a lack of food, the animals are rather weakly tied to a certain territory, mostly wandering around.

An ermine usually lives in burrows of rodents that it has eaten. A ready-made ermine burrow with several ridges, in some of them the owner arranges latrines; there are also several latrines near the burrow.

The stoat's movements in a calm state are short jumps typical of small weasels. Due to the pubescence of the paws, the animal easily runs through the snow, but if the snow cover is deep and soft, it prefers to “dive” into it and move in snowy passages. The stoat swims well. When defended or frightened, the animal releases a sharp-smelling secret of the anal glands; with the same odorous liquid, in addition to urine, an individual site is marked.

The diet of this predator is dominated by murine rodents. But the ermine is able to kill larger animals. Without much difficulty, he kills the water vole or pika, which weigh more than the predator itself. Frogs, lizards, and small birds serve as secondary food for it. In some places, after the freeze-up, ermines are actively looking for fish under the ice in the dried-up channels of small rivers and on the rifts.

The ermine is active mainly in the morning and evening twilight hours, when voles are most active. Since this predator is almost unable to dig out the shelters of rodents, it hunts mainly in those holes where it can freely penetrate. With a high and loose snow cover, it catches most of the rodents under the snow, almost never appearing on the surface.

There is a lot of mystery about the breeding of the ermine: it is one of the very few species of animals in which the timing of pregnancy can vary significantly depending on the time of mating. The rut lasts from March to September. With early mating, the female carries cubs for only about a month, gives birth to them in the same year. If mating takes place in summer or early autumn, embryonic development proceeds with a long delay and lasts 9-10 months, so that the female gives birth to cubs only in the spring of next year. Most often, there are 5-8 pups in the litter, but sometimes up to 18. The female ermine is a caring mother. In the first days after the birth of offspring, she rarely leaves the nest, warming her cubs with her warmth. When it gets cold, the mother plugs the inlet with part of the litter or the carcass of a killed vole. On hot days, on the other hand, she sometimes carries her puppies out of a stuffy nest and puts them on a cooler bed of grass and leaves. Cubs grow slowly: their eyes open only at the age of one month, and at the age of about 40 days they begin to respond with a voice (“chick”) to the appearance of a threat. As soon as they see the light, the cubs become agile and aggressive. They begin to leave the nest in the second month of life. Family life lasts 3-4 months, the breakup of broods and the beginning of settlement of the young take place in mid-late summer. Life expectancy is 5-6 years.

The ermine is not distinguished by caution and is not afraid of a person.

The ermine is one of the most common small predators of the forest zone. Because of the very valuable fur, it has always been among the mass objects of the fur trade. Even in ancient times, the skin was used for finishing fur coats, hats, and robes of noble persons. This animal is of great benefit, destroying small rodent pests.

Steppe, or Light polecat (MustelaEeversmanni)

In general appearance, disposition and habits, it is completely similar to the forest chorem, but a little larger and lighter. Winter fur is fluffy and very soft. The general very light yellowish-whitish color of the animal is determined by the color of the down. The outer brown hair is sparse, creating only a dark bloom all over the body. The belly is brownish yellow, and the chest, groin and legs are almost black. The head is variegated: both eyes are covered by a transverse dark (coffee-brown) “mask” surrounded by a whitish or pure white field that extends from the end of the muzzle through the cheeks to the forehead. The ears are entirely white, but there is a dark spot between them and the white band on the forehead. The pattern on the head of young individuals is especially contrasting; in old ones, on the contrary, the whole head is very light, whitish.

This polecat is widespread throughout the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. In Russia, this species is distributed in a rather narrow strip along the southern border - from the central Chernozem region through the southern regions of Siberia and the Altai-Sayan mountainous country to the Trans-Baikal steppes and further to the middle Amur region. In Western Siberia, the steppe ferret goes far to the north along river valleys and clearings in places.

The ferret's favorite places are flat and upland steppes, fallow lands, wastelands, pastures, gentle slopes of ravines and ravines, the outskirts of reed beds near the steppe lakes. In Siberia, along the floodplains of rivers and in all places with little snow, weakly overgrown with forest, it quite widely penetrates from the south into the taiga zone. Here it can also be found in more humid areas. Steppe choris are little tied to certain habitats. Only in the summer period do they live quite settledly, spending almost all the warm time in one place. In winter, the animals move widely across their hunting territories, staying in one place from several days to 2-3 weeks.

This small predator prefers to make permanent shelters in dry, high places, occupying the dwellings of its victims. The permanent shelters of the steppe polecat are quite complex - with many branches, with several chambers: in addition to the nesting one, there are one or two more for food supplies.

The steppe polecat is an agile, agile, brave and curious animal. He swims great and climbs well.

Small rodents - gophers, hamsters, pikas - are of primary importance in food. In the steppe, he catches voles, small hamsters, in the floodplains he picks up dead fish, and near settlements - carrion, food waste.

Rut in steppe ferrets occurs in early spring, pregnancy lasts about one and a half months, the delay in the development of the embryo, which is characteristic of many mustelids, lasts only a week. The number of pups in a litter is usually 7-10, sometimes up to 18. Young, weighing only about 5-10 grams at birth, develop quite quickly. Young animals can kill small rodents on their own, starting from 7-8 weeks of age. By the end of the second month, the color becomes completely "adult". Ferrets stay in the brood hole for 2-2.5 months.

In most of its range, this species is quite common. However, in the steppe regions of the Amur region, the eastern limit of its distribution lies, the habitat conditions turned out to be so badly disturbed by human economic activity that this put the local subspecies of the steppe polecat on the brink of extinction. In this regard, the Amur steppe polecat was taken under the protection of the law and included in the "Red Book of Russia".

The kind of dressing (Vormela)

Monotypic genus of the weasel family. Small (body length up to 35 cm in both sexes), body proportions and habits are most similar to steppe polecats, differ in fluffy tail and ears, very variegated fur color. The anal glands secrete a pungent-smelling secret. They inhabit dry steppes, semi-deserts of Europe, Kazakhstan, Small, Middle, Central Asia.

Bandaging (VormelaPeregusna)

This is a very distinctive animal. Its name reflects the peculiarities of color: on the head on a dark background, as it were, superimposed wide light stripes - "sling". Sometimes this small motley carnivore is called the chore-dressing, however, it is not at all a relative of the steppe and forest choirs.

Body length 27-35 cm, weight 400-700 g. The constitution is rather dense, the body is not as thin and elongated as that of the smaller salmon or ermine. The tail is slightly more than half the length of the body. The legs are short and strong. On a small head with a blunt muzzle, rather large and contrastingly colored ears stand out sharply, unlike other mustelids. The fur is rather coarse, with a poorly developed undercoat, short, only the tail is very fluffy. The color of the body is very variegated and bright, very peculiar, it is a complex combination of black, brownish-yellow and white spots, mottles and stripes.

The area occupies lowland semi-deserts and deserts, part of the dry steppes of the southwestern and central regions of Asia (from Turkey to Mongolia) and southeastern Europe (Balkans, southern Ukraine, Ciscaucasia). On the territory of Russia, dressing occurs in two regions: one of them is the Ciscaucasian and Caspian steppes and semi-deserts, the other region is the dry steppes of the Altai foothills - the dressing penetrates from Eastern Kazakhstan.

Like many other variegated small predators - inhabitants of arid open spaces, the dressing has a very interesting protection from enemies. When the pursuer overtakes it, the animal takes a special defensive posture: it rises on straightened legs, arches its back, fluffs up its tail strongly and throws it on its back, lifts its head, bares its teeth, and growls deeply, almost like a dog, and does not “chirp” like most small weasel.

In the deserts of Central Asia, the main food of the dressing is the great gerbil, which lives in huge colonies. In the Caspian steppes, she hunts mainly small gophers, hamsters, voles.

In summer, the animal is active mainly in the morning and evening twilight, the rest of the time it spends in underground shelters. He himself practically does not dig holes, settles in underground structures of rodents, only slightly expanding them. The same burrows are the main hunting ground: the predator rarely hunts in open spaces.

The features of reproduction in the dressing have not been studied. It is only known that her rut takes place in spring and early summer, the birth of cubs only in the spring of next year due to a long delay in intrauterine development.

The number of dressings is small everywhere, and in some places, especially in the European part of the range, this predator is simply rare. Therefore, this species is protected by law, included in the "Red Book of Russia".

Rod Badgers (Meles)

Until recently, this genus from the weasel family was considered monotypic; recently, 2-3 species have been distinguished in it. Large (body length up to 100 cm, weight up to 16-24 kg), heavy build, with a narrow wedge-shaped head. Short legs with powerful claws. The fur is rather rough, the color is a combination of black and whitish tones. Skull with powerful ridges. The premolar teeth are small, the first molars are enlarged, with a flat pressing crown. They inhabit the deciduous forests of the temperate zone and forest-steppe of Eurasia, in the mountains up to 3000 m above sea level. seas. They are territorial, live in family groups, dig complex burrows. Hibernating. Omnivores. Monogamous, rut in spring-summer, pregnancy 9-12 months, in litter up to 6 cubs. Sexual maturity at the age of 2-3 years, life expectancy up to 16 years. They are obtained for the sake of the skin, fat.

An animal, rather large for the weasel family, of heavy constitution. The body length of a badger is 60-100 cm, weight in summer is 7-13 kg, in autumn it increases to 20-25 kg due to significant body fat. The body has a peculiar wedge-shaped shape: the body from the wide and convex back part tapers gradually towards the shoulders, continues with a relatively short neck and turns into a small narrow elongated head with very small rounded ears, which ends with an elongated movable nose. The tail is short, no more than a quarter of the body length. The legs are also short and massive, armed with elongated strong claws, feet with a bare bottom surface. All these external features to one degree or another are associated with the badger's adaptation to digging.

The fur is long and rough. The color of the body is very characteristic: the general tone of the back and sides is light silver-gray, closer to the belly it darkens sharply, the throat, the belly itself and the legs are black. Fairly fluffy tail of the same color as the back or more whitish. The head is white, on each side there is a rather wide black stripe that stands out sharply against this background.

Badgers are widespread from Europe to China and Japan; Russia accounts for the northern half of their range. They inhabit deciduous and mixed forests, steppes of the European part of Russia and southern Siberia, all of the Amur region, the Ussuri region.

The European badger is a forest animal, predominantly adheres to the edges, forest islands among open spaces, copses, overgrown ravines. It is most numerous in a strip of mixed forests, where forest thickets alternate with fields, meadows and villages. The badger settles on the slopes of ravines, high manes near lakes, on high terraces along river valleys, in the mountains of Central Asia and southern Siberia, lives on mountain spurs cutting into the desert, in forests at an altitude of 3500 m. In the Far East, the badger is associated mainly with forest valleys of large rivers.

The badger is a sedentary animal, tightly attached to its burrow. With an abundance of food, badgers settle close to each other, placing burrows in the neighborhood on one slope of the ravine. This animal leads a “semi-underground” way of life, spending most of the day in the hole in the summer and several months in a row in the winter. The badger always builds its dwelling by itself, and throughout its life - it almost continuously repairs the underground structure, expands and deepens it, adds the number of ridges. There are also several ventilation ducts that open at some distance among the bushes or grass. The underground part of the badger burrow is a complex system of galleries, sometimes located in several tiers, with numerous branches, dead ends, extensions and 1-2 nesting chambers. The main chamber is located in the core. It is lined with a thick layer of litter of dry grass, leaves, moss, which is renewed twice a year - in spring and autumn.

If the owners are not worried about anything, then the burrow is passed on "by inheritance" and each subsequent generation contributes to the construction of complex underground housing. The main improvement work is timed to fall: young animals are digging new passages for themselves, and married couples are preparing old ones for winter. An old “badger” - a space occupied by one large burrow - can occupy an area of ​​up to 1 hectare. If conditions permit, a family of badgers has 2-3 holes at once, which the animals change, living in each for 2-4 weeks. Sometimes neighboring burrows are connected by passages - whole “badger cities” are formed, inhabited by several families.

For the winter, badgers fall asleep. By the fall, the badger accumulates significant reserves of subcutaneous fat, so that its weight almost doubles. By the time of its occurrence, its burrow has already been cleaned out, the nesting chamber is filled with fresh litter, the entry holes of the badger, climbing into the hole for the last time, clog up with earth and leaves. Animals cease to appear on the surface after the first snow falls; in very warm winters, they remain active until January. In spring, animals wake up with the onset of active snow melting, when the average daily temperature passes zero.

In search of food, the badger usually goes out at dusk and at night, preferring the moonless darkness. Unlike most wild animals, a badger does not lurk when moving, makes a lot of noise, it is usually heard from several tens of meters away. He makes a lot of noise, puffing loudly and poking around in the ground in search of food.

Badger movements are usually slow and heavy. He walks with his head lowered to the ground. Usually he walks or jogs slowly. The badger swims well. This beast is very clean: it digs out special holes - "latrines" near the burrow or in the distance - among the tall grass or bushes, so that they are difficult to find. The badger hole is always pretty clean.

Of the sense organs, the badger has the best developed sense of smell - the main way of orientation. His eyesight is weak - he reacts only to moving objects, and his hearing is not sharper than that of a person. His calm voice resembles a grunt, in an irritated state the badger grumbles abruptly, and squeals piercingly during fights or attacks of a predator.

The first place in his diet is occupied by insects, mainly large beetles - dung beetles, ground beetles, woodcutters, beetles. Many badgers eat terrestrial molluscs, mainly slugs, and even more earthworms. In the middle lane, he catches voles, in the southern arid regions - quite a lot of lizards, and living in damp places - frogs. Vegetable food is diverse - soft green parts of plants, rhizomes, fruits. He eats them almost everything and in any quantity: in the middle lane these are wild berries, in the southern mountains - fruits.

Badger pairs are formed for several years and even, possibly, for life. Rut takes place in early spring immediately after the birth of the cubs, or in summer. Pregnancy with a long delay, lasts 9-12 months. The period of birth of young is stretched from December to April (depending on the climatic conditions of the area). Most often, the female gives birth to 2-3 badgers, which weigh 70-80 grams, completely helpless, blind and deaf, covered with white fur, and the dark stripes on the head are already clearly distinguishable. Up to three months of age, young people feed exclusively on mother's milk and do not receive any feeding. Some young people leave the family in October, others stay with their mother and lie down with her for the winter. Life expectancy up to 15 years. The badger is a fairly ordinary animal, nothing threatens its numbers.

It is very useful for the extermination of insects harmful in forestry - May beetles and their larvae, lumberjacks, sawflies. There is no special trade for this animal. In folk medicine, badger fat is used to heal wounds, with rheumatism.

Genus Otter (Lutra)

The genus of the weasel family, includes 3-5 species; on the territory of Russia 1 species. Adaptations are associated with a semi-aquatic lifestyle. The sizes are large: body length 55-95 cm, weight up to 11 kg. The body and neck are elongated; tail (length 25-55 cm) thick at the base. The head is flattened, short, with small ears, small eyes set high. The ear canal and nostrils close when diving. Paws are short, with swimming membranes. The fur is short, very dense, the color is dark brown. Skull with shortened rostrum, flat and very wide cerebral chamber. They inhabit the near-water areas of the forest and forest-steppe zones in Eurasia, Africa, in the mountains up to 2800 m above sea level. Territorial, solitary, shelters - burrows. They feed mainly on fish. They breed 1-2 times a year, pregnancy is 10-12 months, there are 2-4 cubs in the litter. The number is small. Valuable fur animals.

River Otter (LutraLutra)

The otter is a rather large animal for the marten family (body length 55-95 cm, weight up to 10 kg.) With a very characteristic appearance, reflecting its adaptability to life in water. The body is highly elongated and relatively thin, very flexible. The tail is long (about half the length of the body), very thick at the base and tapering towards the end. The paws are short, which makes the animal look squat, the fingers are connected by swimming membranes. The neck is rather long, only slightly narrower than the body. The head is small, narrow, strongly flattened, the rounded ears are short, set wide apart. In water, the external auditory canal is closed by a special valve.

The hair is low, with a very dense underfur, even in height over the whole body, tight, shiny. In summer, the fur is only slightly shorter and less frequent than in winter. Covering hair in its terminal third is wide and flattened, as if covering down hair, protecting it from getting wet in water. Feet and hands glabrous ventrally. The color of the fur is uniformly brown throughout the body, the bottom is only slightly lighter than the top.

The river otter is very widespread - almost throughout Eurasia, from the northern forests to the tropical islands of the Malay archipelago; she also lives in northwest Africa. In Russia, it is widespread almost everywhere. The otter lives only along the shores of freshwater bodies.

Water is vital for the otter: in it it gets food, seeks salvation from danger. But land is also of great importance in the life of an otter: on it the animal makes shelters and reproduces, rests, makes transitions between reservoirs.

She prefers rivers with clear water, fast currents and rocky channels, rivers with steep overhanging banks. In quiet places, this animal settles even on the outskirts of large cities. However, in places where the otter is actively hunted, it prefers the most remote places.

The habitat of the river otter, individual or family, is small, limited by a narrow coastal strip. In ponds abundant in food, this predator resides on a territory that stretches along the river for 2-5 kilometers. The owner marks certain places on his territory with urine and excrement, but relations between neighbors are quite peaceful. And in unfavorable periods of life, the boundaries between habitat areas practically disappear: animals gather in places where food is more or it is more available, hunt near each other, use the same convenient approaches under the ice.

In its habitat, the otter equips one permanent burrow and several temporary shelters and shelters. She usually digs a hole in the coastal steep, and if possible, she takes someone else's. In winter, the otter's refuge is located near the ice hole or under the canopy of a steep bank under the surface of the ice, where an empty space forms between the ice and the receding water. The hole of the burrow opens under water at a depth of about half a meter. An inclined path up to 2 meters long leads to a nesting chamber, always located above the water level and lined with dry grass, foliage, and moss. From the chamber to the surface of the ground, the otter breaks through 1-2 small holes, which serve for ventilation.

The otter can be active around the clock, but most often at dusk in the morning and evening. Activity increases markedly on quiet moonlit nights, and in winter when the weather is mild.

On land, the otter, moving at a walk, trot or jumping, hunches down strongly. In the water, the movements of the otter are fast, dexterous and confident. Swimming slowly, she usually paddles with her paws, and with a quick movement she presses her legs to the body and moves forward with vigorous serpentine movements of the entire body and tail. It dives instantly, often with a strong splash, but if necessary, it goes under the water completely silently. In case of danger, the otter takes in air in a split second, sometimes for this it only needs to put the tip of its muzzle out of the water. It can stay under water for up to 5 minutes.

The otter is very mobile. With a cheerful disposition, she devotes a lot of time to all kinds of games, especially loves to ride from hills. Both children and adults, having fun, many times slide down the coastal slope and flop into the water. In such places, "roller coasters" are formed - slopes smoothly polished by the bodies of animals on steep banks with a length of 5 to 20 meters.

The river otter is a typical fish eater. The otter prefers small fish to large fish, in places of spawning he willingly catches grown fry. The otter's winter food is mainly frogs. With a lack of basic food, the animal eats large mollusks, mainly toothless. In rivers, where there are many crayfish, she eats with pleasure these aquatic inhabitants, and in the south of Siberia she picks up caddis larvae teeming there in summer from the bottom of mountain rivers. Breeding of the otter is not confined to a specific season of the year, especially in places with a temperate or warm climate. During the rutting period, males, usually silent, emit a peculiar whistle. Intrauterine development is delayed, childbirth occurs 7-8 months after mating. The fertility of this animal is low - most often 2-4 cubs are born. They develop quite quickly: they begin to see clearly on the 9-10th day, by 10 months they weigh about 4 kilograms. The cubs spend the entire first year of life with the female. She is very attached to the young, in case of danger she protects them, sometimes she even attacks first, including people.

Although in nature the otter avoids humans, in captivity it is easily tamed, extremely friendly. In southern countries, locals sometimes use tamed otters for fishing. This predator has beautiful, durable and warm fur. Previously, the otter was hunted very intensively, which led to sad consequences for her. Now hunting for her is limited everywhere. And yet, in European countries, its number is steadily declining. The otter subspecies inhabiting the Caucasus is included in the "Red Book of Russia".

Clan of Kalan (Enhydra)

Monotypic genus of the weasel family, close to otters. The largest members of the family (body length 1.5 m) are adapted to life in the sea. The body is elongated. The forelimbs are short, the fingers of the hand are enclosed in a common skin sac. The hind limbs are shifted back, turned into flippers. The fur is very thick, does not get wet in water due to the air contained in it, seasonal dimorphism is not pronounced. Coloring brown in different shades. The skull is high, with the rostrum sharply "chopped off" in front. Distributed in the coastal waters of the North Pacific Ocean. They lead a nomadic life, keep in groups. In litter 1, rarely 2 cubs. Due to the very valuable furs, they were almost exterminated, now they are protected.

Sea otter (EnhydraLutris)

The size of the sea otter is the largest among mustelids: body length 100-130 cm, weight of males up to 45 kg, females up to 35 kg. The appearance is very peculiar. The body is elongated, cylindrical in shape, the neck is rather short and thick, the tail is about a third of the body's length. The limbs, especially the front ones, are very short. The brush is thick, the fingers are enclosed in a common skin sac and are only slightly marked on the outside by skin folds. The hind limbs are set far back, the foot is enlarged and turned into flippers: all fingers to the last phalanges are dressed in a swimming membrane covered with short hair, the outer toe is the longest. The head is rounded, with very short ears with thick long whiskers-vibrises, with their help the animal feels the bottom under water. The auditory openings and nostrils are slit-like; when submerged under water, they are closed. Unlike all other mustelids, the sea otter does not have anal glands due to the loss of their main purpose - marking the animal's habitat.

Sea otter fur is unique in its properties. It is not particularly tall, but exceptionally thick, soft, silky. Guard and downy hairs of approximately the same length - about 2-3 centimeters throughout the body. The density of the fur is so great that it does not get wet and does not allow water to pass to the skin. It is striking that in the animal, unlike other warm-blooded inhabitants of cold waters, the subcutaneous layer of fat is very thin, so that the fur is the only thing that protects it from cooling. The general color of the fur coat is most often dark brown, somewhat lighter on the head.

Kalan is a sea animal. The range of the species covers island ridges and part of the continental coast of the northern half of the Pacific Ocean. It stretches in a narrow arc from Hokkaido through the Kuril ridge, the Commander and Aleutian Islands along the Pacific coast of North America to California. In our country, the largest herd of sea otters lives on one of the two Commander Islands - Medny.

The favorite places of the sea otter are coastal waters and steep rocky shores, barrier reefs, underwater and surface stones with extensive accumulations of "seaweed". They avoid places with a more even coastline and sandy or pebble beaches ”: there is no shelter from the elements or people.

Sea otters are sedentary, tied to the inhabited area. Almost their entire life takes place in the coastal strip 2-5 kilometers wide, where the sea depth rarely exceeds 20 meters: these animals get food from the bottom, but are unable to dive deeply. Sea otters do not have individual territories: depending on the season, they collectively develop certain parts of the coastal zone.

The sea otter has no special shelters. When the animals are resting on the water, they try to get deep into the algal fields. For rest on land, sea otters are usually located on reefs - small coastal stones constantly sticking out of the water. Quite often the sea otters are laid down on rock-rolls - placers of boulders thrown from the coastal steeps by earthquakes.

Sea otters swim like real seals: the hind limbs stretched back horizontally, which, together with the lumbar part of the body, oscillate up and down, serve as the propeller. During feeding, the sea otter usually stays under water for 1-2 minutes, but in case of anxiety it can last up to 3-5 minutes. The maximum depth to which the sea otter can dive is about 50-60 meters.

In a calm environment, the sea otter is not very mobile. These animals spend a significant part of the day in their specific rookeries, which are the "fields" of seaweed for this animal. Spreading out on its back, the sea otter sways with its belly up for a long time on the waves. In this position, which is not characteristic of any other animal, he sleeps, cleans himself, eats, and the female also holds a cub on her breast.

The sea otter rarely comes out on land, only for rest. Females hatch at the time of labor. He moves awkwardly over the stones. In winter, when descending from a prone in the snow, the animal glides on its belly, leaving no paw prints.

The sea otter devotes a lot of time to the toilet, cleaning the fur from the slightest dirt. Lying on the water in his usual position, he combes the fur coat with his front paws, as if massaging the chest and stomach, head, back of the head, hind legs one after the other.

Of the senses, the sea otter has the most developed sense of touch with the help of vibris. With amazing speed he finds a sea urchin or a gastropod mollusk under water in complete darkness. The sight is not so perfect, but the beast notices changes in the situation from afar. Hearing is poorly developed, and he perceives sounds that make up a natural background for the sea otter. So, the sea otter reacts to the splash of water, but leaves without obvious attention the noise of an airplane flying over the rookery.

The diet of the sea otter is quite specific and monotonous. It is based on sea urchins, the second most important place is occupied by sea gastropods and bivalve molluscs. The sea otter also eats crabs and small fish (capelin, gerbil, sockeye salmon), occasionally catches octopuses. Sea urchins are especially significant in the autumn-winter period, when crabs and fish moving away from the coast to great depths become inaccessible.

The sea otter is predominantly a daytime animal, but if feeding in the daytime is hampered by storms, the animals are also active at night. This peculiar predator is mainly a gatherer, extracting food from the seabed near the coast, in remote shoals, among algal fields. Never feeds on land.

There is no definite seasonality in the breeding of sea otters: mating games, mating in water, newborns can be observed at any time of the year. However, the appearance of the young more often occurs in the spring than during the colder stormy months. The gestation period is 8-9 months, it may be delayed, like in most other mustelids. Childbirth takes place on land, the female gives birth to one cub, only as an exception two. A newborn, like other marine mammals, is rather large (about one and a half kilograms) and fully developed - sighted, with a full set of milk teeth, covered with thick juvenile brownish fur. A couple of weeks after birth, the calanok makes the first attempts to swim on its own - so far only on its back. After another week, he begins to roll over and swim on his belly next to his mother.

These animals are very peaceful, there are almost never conflicts between them. Most often, they live in small groups of 10-15 individuals, under certain weather or forage conditions they unite in large herds of up to 300 animals. These clusters have no structure and easily disintegrate again after a while. Only single males and females with calves unite in fairly stable groups, keeping somewhat apart.

Sea otter fur is one of the most valuable, unmatched in beauty and durability; the old “gray-haired beaver” is especially appreciated. The high quality of the fur played a fatal role in the recent history of this sea animal - the history of the extermination of the sea otter by man .. In our country there is a strict ban on the catch of the sea otter, the species is included in the "Red Book of Russia".

The following representatives of the weasel family live on the territory of the Tomsk Region:

· Stoat. The greatest number reaches in some places of the floodplain of the river. Obi. He often enters settlements.

· Weasel. It lives in the same lands as the ermine.

· Columns. Distributed throughout the region, but more common in its southern regions.

· Steppe ferret. Penetrates into the region from the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions to the latitude of Tomsk, meeting on clearings and agricultural lands.

· American mink. It was brought to the region artificially, where it successfully took root. Inhabits the shores of various reservoirs and interfluves.

· Sable. Inhabits various woodlands, is very rare in the southern regions and near large settlements.

· Forest marten. Occasionally found on the eastern outskirts of the region, in the left-bank part of the river basin. Vasyugan.

· Wolverine. Distributed throughout the region, more common in the northern taiga.

· Badger. Distributed throughout the area. It is more common in the southern regions, and penetrates to the north along river floodplains.

· Otter. Distributed throughout the region, near various reservoirs rich in fish. The number is small.

Conclusion

The weasel family is a large group of animals, distributed almost throughout the entire globe. In total, there are about 29 genera. Mostly they lead a terrestrial image, living in holes, between stones, in various rubble, in tree hollows. The burrow has several outlets, exits. There is a main chamber lined with bedding, storage and latrines. Several generations, and even families (badgers) can live in one hole.

Weasels are highly organized animals. By the nature of their diet, they are mostly carnivores, although omnivores are also found. Some feeds may feed on carrion. The food is based on small rodents, birds, lagomorphs, smaller predators, fish, amphibians, as well as berries and fruits. Weasels do not disdain the ruin of nests, other people's holes, chicken coops, hunting traps. Many are stocking up for the winter.

The role of weasels in nature is very great. They, being predators, constitute an important link in the food chain. Kunyas are the orderlies of the forest, destroying sick and old animals.

The role of the weasel family for humans and agriculture cannot be underestimated. Weasels have long been prized by hunters because of their beautiful, thick fur. No wonder the skins of weasels were a kind of "currency" among the Siberian peoples. Weasels kill rodents that are harmful to agriculture in large numbers. At the same time, mustelids do harm by making "raids" on farms (chicken coops, poultry houses, etc.). Some members of the weasel family are the objects of animal husbandry. They are bred on farms, again for the valuable fur. Some martens easily get used to humans, are domesticated and can live as pets.

List of used literature

1. Pavlinov I.Ya .. Mammals, parts 1, 2. Life of animals. The nature of Russia. M .: Astrel, 1999.-608 p., 624 p.

2. Pavlinov I.Ya. (ed.) 1999. Mammals. Big encyclopedic dictionary. M .: Astrel, 1999.-524 p.

3. Konstantinov V.M. and other Zoology of vertebrates: Textbook for students. biol. fac. ped. universities / V.M. Konstantinov, S.P. Naumov, S.P. Shatalov. 2nd ed., Stereotype. M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 2000.-496 p.

4. Leontiev V.V. Hunting. - SPb .: LLC "Diamant", LLC "Golden Age", LLP "Leila", 1999.-640 p., Ill.

5. N.G. Shubin. Hunting animals and birds of the Tomsk region. Tomsk: Publishing house "Krasnoe znamya", 1992.-115 p., Ill.

Despite the generally accepted tendency that all animals belonging to the same family share similar traits, the marten family is an exception to this. At the moment, it consists of twenty-three modern species that live in Eurasia, North and South America, and Africa. These are the smallest animals of all carnivores.

General characteristics of weasels

In the weasel family, there are many representatives of different habitats, there are aquatic and semi-aquatic species, terrestrial. Among the general characteristics that animals of this family have, it should be said about an elongated and flexible body, located on relatively short legs with five toes on each.

The neck is mobile, the head is small. In addition, you need to pay attention to the facial part of the skull, which is slightly shortened. Body length 11 - 150cm, and weight from 25g to 45kg. It should also be emphasized that the marten family is not only representatives of the carnivorous animal world, but also rather small omnivores.

Everyone has good eyesight, hearing and smell. All of them are mobile, dexterous. Some are good at swimming, some can climb trees.

Representatives of the weasel family

Among the most famous representatives of this family are:

• pine marten;
• badger;
• mink;
• sable;
• otter
• weasel;
• wolverine;
• ermine.

Features of representatives of the weasel family

First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the skin of the above mentioned representatives of the animal world is covered in most cases with thick and thin wool (it is for this reason that they are the most expensive fur animals). The color is varied - spotted, monophonic, striped. Fur colors are white, black, brown, red.

As for the dental system and the structure of their limbs, they are quite diverse and there is no general characteristic of them. Weasel teeth can have from 28 to 38 pieces. Sea otters, for example, have flippers on their hind legs. Weasel's claws are not retractable.

It should be said about the amazingly impressive skeleton, which consists of extremely thin bones. The spinal column itself has: 11 or 12 pairs of ribs in the chest area; 8 or 9 vertebra in the lumbar region; 3 sacral vertebrae; 12 to 26 caudal vertebrae. In most cases, the clavicles in these animals are not sufficiently developed, but the shoulder blades are large.

Weasel habitat

Today, representatives of the weasel family can be found all over the world, with the exception of Australia: they are not affected in any way by different heights and different climatic conditions. In most cases, the animals presented above choose their place of residence in:

• mountains and rocky areas;
• forests and fields;
  
• gardens.

Lifestyle. Nutrition

Almost all animals from the marten family are solitary. They prefer twilight or nocturnal activity. Very often, representatives of this family prefer to use holes and holes that they dig out on their own or simply occupy those that were created by other animals.

Some species like to equip their homes between stones and branches, in tree hollows. In most cases, they do not hibernate: only some species from the weasel family. It is almost impossible to meet them in the wild. All weasels are shy and careful.

MUSHROOMS, marten-like (Mustelidae), a family of mammals of the order of carnivores. The family system is not completely clear. 24 genera (55 species), including: badgers (Meles), otters (Lutra), grisons, sea otters (Enhydra), martens, weasels and ferrets (Mustela), honey badgers (Mellivora), dressings (Vormela), wolverines (Gulo) , tayras (Eira), teledu (Arctonyx), etc.

Based on the size of the representatives of the family, it can be conditionally divided into 3 groups: small (body length 11-50 cm), medium (50-100 cm) and large (100-150 cm); each of these groups brings together representatives of different systematic categories. The smallest member of the family is the weasel, the largest are the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) and the sea otter. All mustelids have an elongated body; limbs are short, five-fingered, with non-stretching claws, digital (including martens, ferrets and weasels), plantigrade (badgers, honey badgers) or semi-walkable (wolverine). In weasels leading an aquatic lifestyle, a swimming membrane is developed between the toes; in the sea otter, the hind limbs are transformed into flippers, and the fingers of the forelimbs are shortened and interconnected. The ears are usually small, rounded at the tops; in aquatic species, the auricles are greatly reduced, and the auditory canals can be closed. Some representatives of mustelids have a very short tail (bapcyk, wolverine), while others - its length exceeds half the body length (including martens, ferret badgers, African weasels). The hair coat is thick, fluffy, in the majority - with a thin soft undercoat; color from solid brown to black. One (in subtropical and tropical species) or two molts per year. In areas with a pronounced seasonal temperature difference, winter fur is thicker and taller, in some species the winter color is white (weasel, ermine). Developed anal glands secrete a pungent-smelling secret. Distributed throughout Eurasia, in Africa, America, on the coastal islands of the North Pacific Ocean. They inhabit landscapes of all natural zones from tundra to tropical forests; in the mountains rise to alpine meadows. The family includes terrestrial, semi-woody, rocky, semi-aquatic and aquatic species. As a rule, they lead a solitary lifestyle. Hollows or natural voids in the ground, other people's holes, some animals (badger, teledu) dig their own intricately arranged holes serve as a refuge. Many are typical carnivores. They are active all year round, some (badgers) hibernate in winter. Most are monogamous. Many have a pregnancy with a latent stage (delay) in fetal development. As a rule, mustelids give birth to 1 to 18 cubs per year.

A number of weasel species are valuable objects of fishing and animal husbandry (for example, sable, American mink). The forest ferret is domesticated. All species play an important role in natural ecosystems, controlling the number of small rodents, creating shelters, etc. The sea mink (Neovison macrodon) became extinct in historical time, 6 species are in an alarming state, of which the giant otter, sea otter, cat otter (Lontra felina) and Sumatran otter (Lutra sumatrana) - endangered.