イタチ / Weasel

As I was driving through one of the villages, a weasel crossed in front of me and entered the property of a house. I was curious and decided to get out of the car and wait. I hurried to take a picture of it as it came back with something in its mouth, and it seemed to have caught a frog. He came back as easily as if he was picking vegetables.

After going into the bushes, it came out soon after, but was no longer holding the frog in its mouth. The weasels’ mating season is from March to May, and they raise their young until around August. At this time of the year, they may be busy bringing food to the baby weasels after they have finished nursing.

I waited for it to come back soon, and it did come back to the place where I thought it was nesting. I waited some more, and this time, it came out right in front of me.

Although I was crouching down and taking pictures without moving, I did not feel alarmed as if they were unaware of my presence compared to wild birds. Many mammals do not have good eyesight, and the weasel may not have been able to see much.

The dull eyes are irresistible.

I heard a crackling sound a while ago, but what is it? I wonder what it is…?

I lost him as he went into a private house’s property again.

By the way, there are two types of weasels in Japan: the Japanese weasel and the continental species, Siberian weasel. Some consider the Japanese weasel to be a subspecies of the continental species. The Japanese weasel is distinguished from the continental species by the ratio of head-to-body length (head length) to tail length (tail length), with the Siberian weasel having a tail length longer than half the head-to-body length.

This photo shows the length of each part very clearly, and the ratio of tail length is clearly larger. It must be a Siberian weasel.