Ermine

I got a new animal on my list of species at Brooks Camp.  An Ermine, which is a short tailed weasel.  They have appeared out of no where.  I saw one running around the trading post and one was on the lower platform trying to draw attention to itself.  It kept running back and forth across the lower platform.  They were quite cute and not that all afraid of humans.  It was the first time I had seen them so they must be getting ready for hibernation too and trying to find all the prey they can.

Ermines eat mouselike creatures so they will devour our vole population.  Though they are known to eat fish and small birds also.  They have a brown coat in the summer that will turn white for the winter.  When they are born they are blind, deaf, and toothless and cover in white fur.  In three weeks they get there teeth and the eys and ears open in five.  The interesting thing about them is that the males don't become sexually active until 11 months of age, but the females become sexually active at 2 to three weeks and usually have mated before their eyes open and still nursing from mom.  The males have nothing to do with raising of the young.

The females are the better hunters as they are smaller in size and can follow prey deeper into burrows than the larger males.  The Irish believed that these creatures were very family orientated even seeing care was given to the dead.  Today though they are trapped for their white fur which is used for trimming around coats.