On a brisk October night at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge’s spillway, the silence of the scene is broken only by the tranquil burbling of the small stream. Suddenly a rustling breaks the peaceful ambience as a small furry creature scurries across a fallen log spanning the running water. A momentary flash from a nearby trail camera documents this small event, revealing our diminutive scurrier to be none other than a long-tailed weasel.
The long-tailed weasel is a fascinating creature and predator, with all the tenacity on ferociousness of its cousin, the wolverine, only on a much smaller scale. Weasels are members of the Mustelid family, along with Fishers, Martins, Otters and Mink. These amazing creatures are known to attack and subdue prey much larger than themselves, including squirrels, rabbits and poultry, usually climbing onto the unfortunate animal’s back and targeting the head and neck with a lethal bite. When “big game” isn’t on the menu, the long-tailed weasel is also known to hunt rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and stolen eggs, occasionally hiding leftovers for future meals. Due to its small size, topping out around 15 inches (of which a third is usually tail), these creatures are also prey themselves, and have to watch out for red foxes, domestic dogs and cats, and coyotes in their home range on Long Island.
Long-tailed weasels are active year-round and give birth to Spring litters of between 1-12 kits after a 10-month gestation period. The kits are initially blind and almost hairless, but grow and mature rapidly, able to eat meat by three weeks and accompany their mothers on hunts by six weeks. This explosive growth requires significant amounts of food fuel, with young consuming up to half of their body weight in a single day. A precocious species, long-tailed weasels are on their own by six months old, and females can even reproduce as young as four months. These creatures are very adaptable, but seem to prefer to inhabit the cover provided by borders between habitats.
These seldom seen creatures are just one of the fantastic species that inhabit a hidden world right beneath our noses and call the refuge home.
By Jake Kommer