This long-tailed weasel was caught on camera at Edith Lake near Kamloops, Feb. 13, 2022.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Rick Sandhu
February 19, 2022 - 8:00 AM
A Kamloops man captured photos of a long-tailed weasel, despite the stealthy critter’s camouflaged winter coat and zippy movements.
It was the first time photographer and avid hunter Rick Sandhu ever spotted one.
“I wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t for my dog pointing it out,” he said. “We were really excited to watch it.”
Sandhu spotted the little fellow while on a walk with his kids and dogs at Edith Lake in the Kamloops area on Sunday, Feb. 13. Weasels are not seen often and it was a rare moment the family will not soon forget.
“We were walking along and my dog perked up so I knew there was something going on,” he said. “I saw the weasel bolt into a woodpile and was disappointed I had missed photographing it. We kept walking and all of a sudden my dog pointed his nose and lifted his paw up like in a Disney cartoon.”
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Sandhu said he looked at the hillside and started taking photos.
“The dogs were whining to go after it and my kids wanted it so bad, we thought it was a ferret,” he said. “We kept pretty quiet and approached slowly. The weasel kept dancing around for several minutes, allowing us to watch him.”
Dr. Peter Arcese is a professor and FRBC chair of Applied Conservation Biology, and co-director of the Centre for Applied Conservation Research, in the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia.
“Long-tailed weasels are common in the province, especially in the southern and eastern areas, but we don’t see them often,” he said. “They are small and will be white this time of year mostly to be camouflaged. They are most active in the wee hours and under the snow looking for food or places to den.”
Dr. Arcese said the weasels are predators that eat regularly and are active all year round. They take over dens and small spaces from chipmunks and squirrels under roots and wood piles.
“The dens sit around two feet in from the entrances,” he said. “They are nice and cozy places for the females to have their kits. Weasels don’t have permanent homes. The females will stay closer to their homes while the males are further ranging looking for food and females.”
While Dr. Arcese couldn’t give an exact size of the critters, he said their body lengths vary and are around 15 inches long. Despite their small size and narrow bodies, they are ferocious.
“They are able to kill things like small rabbits and grey squirrels,” he said. “Most animals bigger than them pray on them, such as aerial predators, bobcat and lynx, anything next up the chain. But they are tough, I would say predators think twice before going after them.”
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The weasels and their relatives are known for their musky odours.
“They have musk glands and anal scent glands that put out a fishy smell,” he said. “They use it to mark their territory and turn away predators.”
Dr. Arcese said the weasels feast on other small mammals like mice, rats, squirrels and chipmunks. They are known to eat birds and bird eggs as well as insects.
They are easy to track having five-fingered paws about an inch across that show claw marks.
Sandhu said on while his family walk he didn’t go looking for tracks or other telltale weasel signs, preferring to respectfully leave the area and the weasel alone right after the photo shoot.
A metal works teacher at a local school, Sandhu showed the photographs to fellow teachers who informed him it wasn’t a ferret. While he didn’t come up with a name for the weasel, he does intend to take his dogs and kids back for a walk to see if he can get a lucky, long-tailed weasel sighting again.
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