Mustelidae

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Mustelidae

Longtail Weasel

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Mustelidae G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Subfamilies

Lutrinae
Melinae
Mellivorinae
Taxideinae
Mustelinae

Mustelidae or Mustelids (from Latin mustela, weasel), commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivorous mammals. The Mustelidae is a diverse family and the largest in the order Carnivora, at least partly because it has in the past been a catch-all category for many early or poorly differentiated taxa.^[1] The Mustelidae in general are phylogenetically relatively primitive and therefore were difficult to classify until genetic evidence started to become available. The increasing availability of such evidence may well result in some members of the family being moved to their own separate families, as has already happened with the skunks, previously considered to be members of the mustelid family.

1 Variety
2 Characteristics
3 Family
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Variety

Mustelids range from the least weasel, not much larger than a mouse, which can live in the high Arctic; to the wolverine, also known by the common names "skunk bear" (referring to its scent and appearance) and "nasty cat" or "glutton" (referring to its behavior), a 50 pound (23 kg) animal that can dispatch reindeer, crush bones as thick as the femur of a moose to get at the marrow, and has been seen attempting to drive bears from kills; to the ratel, which has a unique symbiosis with a bird called the honey guide bird; to the tropical, largely fruit-eating tayra; to the aquatic otters. There is one domesticated species of mustelid, the ferret, kept either as a pet or as a working animal. Other mustelids include mink, badgers, weasels, polecats, zorilla, and martens. Mustelidae is one of the most species-rich families in the order Carnivora, as well as one of the oldest. Mustelid-like forms first appeared about 40 million years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of rodents. However those early mustelid-like forms do not appear to be the direct ancestors of the modern mustelids, which first appeared about 15 million years ago.

[edit] Characteristics

Several members of the family are aquatic to varying degrees, ranging from the semi-aquatic mink, the river otters, and the highly aquatic sea otter. The sea otter is also the only non-primate mammal known to use a tool while foraging. It uses "anvil" stones to crack open the shellfish that form a significant part of its diet. It is a "keystone species," keeping its prey populations in balance so some do not outcompete the others and they do not destroy the kelp in which they live.

Just as otters are adapted to swimming, several groups of badgers are adapted to digging. Many species of badgers and otters have evolved social groupings as well.

The fisher has a unique system to kill porcupines: it attacks the porcupine's face until the animal is so weak it can be flipped over, giving the fisher access to the porcupine's vulnerable belly. In some areas porcupines form as much as a quarter of the fisher's diet.

The least weasel, adapted for eating small rodents such as mice and voles, reproduces up to three times a year (unusual for carnivores, who typically reproduce annually) to take advantage of the fluctuations in rodent populations. Because of its small body size and fast metabolism it must eat every few hours to survive, so it runs through multiple cycles of sleep and wakefulness every day.

Many mustelids have scent glands which they use as defense against predators. The most developed of these were found in skunks (Mephitinae), which were moved into a new family, Mephitidae, following a convincing paper (Dragoo and Honeycutt, 1997, Journal of Mammalogy, 78(2): 426-443), that somewhat reorganized these two families based on DNA analyses.

Some mustelids have exquisite furs which have been valuable for many centuries—the mink, the sable (a type of marten) and the ermine (stoat) are all members of the family. This has led to the hunting of these animals, especially in the past. One species, the sea mink (Mustela macrodon) of New England and Canada, was driven to extinction by fur trappers around the same time that the passenger pigeon was declining. Its appearance and habits are almost unknown today because no complete specimens can be found and no systematic contemporary studies were conducted. Today some mustelids are in trouble for other reasons. The sea otter, that almost shared the fate of the sea mink, now risks being destroyed by oil spills and the side effects of overfishing; the black-footed ferret, a relative of the european polecat, suffers from the disappearance of the American prairie; and the wolverine is in a long, slow decline because of habitat destruction and persecution.

Mongooses and meerkats bear a striking resemblance to many mustelids (convergence due to similar niches) but belong to a distinctly different suborder - the Feliformia (all those carnivores sharing more recent origins with the Felidae) and not the Caniformia (those sharing more recent origins with the Canidae).