Least Weasel at Wildwood 28/11/09

Mustela nivalis

My first time seeing our native weasel as anything other than a fast-moving blob in the car headlights. Was a good bit of timing on my part as it turned out - they\'d just been fed and were busy bringing home the bacon, as it were. These glass-windowed burrows are very handy for giving a view of what would otherwise be a very difficult species to view.

They had these at the Otter and Owl not too long ago; I found they were either invisible or all over the place at high speed!

it looks like they are too big for the tunnels =)

Most burrowing animals have burrows that are only just large enough for them to fit (whether they dig their own or move into a disused burrow of another animal).

There are two major reasons:

- if you're digging your own burrow, you don't want to waste energy and time digging any more than you need to.

- one of the main reasons for burrowing is to avoid predators; having the narrowest possible burrow excludes the maximum number of predators.

Small,relatively cheap, intriguingly-designed exhibits inhabited by active animals are often a huge hit with visitors. People will often spend far more time captivated by such an exhibit than they will spend on a vast multi-million euro spectacular exhibit and most major zoos are very slow to get this message. It is wonderful that so much time and money is being spent on "prestige" exhibits worldwide, but it is a shame that so little effort is being made on exercising creativity and inventiveness on behalf of small species (apart from the ubiquitous meerkats).