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Why show a photo of a caged animal? Surely a better photo is available.
Are all of the Mustelinae genera other than Gulo, Martes, and Eira normally described as "weasels," and not just Mustela? john k 15:16, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
I'm not saying that people call the family as a whole weasels. But what do Europeans call Mustela frenata? I would imagine they call it a "Long-tailed Weasel." The fact that Europeans use "Weasel" to rever to M. nivalis doesn't mean that they only use Weasel to refer to M. nivalis. There are a bunch of animals which are not M. nivalis and which have "weasel" in their common name. The idea of these things being unable to coexist is ridiculous. We call the Domestic Pig "the Pig," but that doesn't mean that we don't refer to other Suids as "pigs." Felis silvestris (or F. s. catus) is called the "Cat," but that doesn't mean that other Felids aren't generally referred to as "cats." I notice that you ignore OED definition 2: " 2. Applied with qualifying words to various animals belonging to the family Mustelidæ, or having some marked resemblance to the weasel, " There is nothing whatsoever to indicate that this meaning is used only in North America. I will repeat, then, that saying that "Weasel" applies only to Mustela is ridiculous. It seems to me that "Weasel" can be thought to refer only to M. nivalis, or to refer to the entire Mustelinae. But the idea that it is limited to Mustela is bizarre. john k 18:45, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
seglea 15:32, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
Oh, okay, I got you. I would actually agree that all of mustelidae is not normally called "weasels." Certainly otters and badgers (and skunks, when they were included in mustelidae) are never referred to as weasels. In the Mustelinae, also, there are various individual species which are not referred to as weasels - notably the Wolverine, the Tayra, the various members of Martes, various animals which are called ferrets and polecats (not necessarily closely related to one another), the Stoat/Ermine (Ermine seems to be more common in North America...), the two species of mink. But here, at least, if one had to put a general term to the Mustelinae, it would be "weasels," I think. At any rate, we seem to be agreed that saying that Weasel=Mustela is wrong. How do you think this should be solved? I note that, at the moment, we have no page on the Mustelinae as a whole, and that the non-European genera of Mustelinae also have no articles. There seems to be significant room for improvement here. john k 15:53, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
I wasn't aware that there was an American-short-tailed Weasel. As far as I was aware, in America we called it the "Ermine." and that was it...but I'm fairly drunk at the moment, so I may very well be wrong. john k 05:54, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
I thought that only "weasels" are strictly known as "weasels". Sure, on a broader meaning it can mean ferrets, polecats, stoats, skunks, zorillas, badgers, otters, wolverines, martens, fishers, grisons, ratels, stink badgers, ferret badgers, mink, etc, but strictly only weasels...I think.61.230.79.242 04:16, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Interesting. Why not just move this page to the taxon name and then turn "Weasel" into a disambiguation page or or something? This is a good article about the Mustelinae, and it explains very well that many of it's members are only rarely considered collectively all "weasels". This article is about weasels and their close weaselish relatives, the weasel tribe. I could cite presendent; this is what was done in other cases like this one. Chrisrus (talk) 21:32, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Related to the above discussion - It seems some editors have assumed the article is about Mustela nivalis only, and others that is is about the genus; eg the length is given as max. 217mm which is actually shorter than the max size of nivalis according to its own article "Least weasel", and certainly shorter than the max length of other mustelae, which are listed further down as being included in the article topic. Suggest this article be moved/retitled "Mustela", with appropriate redirects, and anything referring to nivalis only be moved to the "Least weasel" article if not already there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Newburyjohn (talk • contribs) 10:05, 26 April 2016 (UTC)
Ha-ha! Vitriol 12:46, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
Clear the article from profanity, someone abused the page. (VEC7OR 2006 05 10)
Okay, if your drunk don't say anything, kids go on here, thank you very much, this isn't some chat room. Well any way, I've put some information myself on the weasel on here. I don't get how people can debate on the weasel, sounds like my kind of thing! Okay, well, the period is almost over, I got to go to my next class, I'll continue with this later! -C-dawg
Are you joking? WEASEL WORDS! That's a good one!61.230.79.242 04:16, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
This seems to be a recurring joke for this article. --Pompous stranger (talk) 10:28, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
Adorable! :D Let it stay. 67.242.147.139 (talk) 06:58, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Anyone got reliable references for pack behavior in weasels? (added by user:74.67.79.158)
They're strictly solitary.61.230.79.242 04:17, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
I believe that there are at least seven members of the weasel family.
weasel wolverine mongoose mink marmot ferret fisher
WRONG! The mongoose is part of the mongoose family, while the, marmot is not even a carnivore -- it's rodent. Here are the animals in the weasel family that I can think of:
Dora Nichov 13:49, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
I almost frogot one:
Dora Nichov 03:26, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
I've reverted a pack of changes that stated that the use of "weasel" for "Least Weasel" vs the genus is an everyday vs scientifc usage matter. See higher up this page for a long discussion that seems to make it fairly clear that it is in fact an American/European difference. However, this is a matter that really wants settling by producing some quotations, or some counts from Google or something. seglea 19:33, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Is it true weasels do a hypnotic dance in front of their prey? I'd like a source on this. 130.215.112.54 22:00, 19 November 2006 (UTC) John S.
Very controversal. Some say they do, others say no. The no-sayers say that it's just a parasite in their brain or something like that. Depends on which way think of it. Dora Nichov 00:27, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
this article needs to be cleaned up with the random all caps bit
Can I add Weasel Stomping Day as a (quite controversial) reference in popular culture? Or are we avoiding that? The Lilac Pilgrim 10:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I just landed on this page after reading the english version of the last tome of Stephen King "Dark Tower" serie (itself called "The Dark Tower"). In it there is a "Taheen" character (they looks like human/animal hybrid) that is call "The Weasel" and has a weasel head. Now I know what it means. Though maybe it could be added to this page ?
H3nryH3nry 20:20, 1 April 2007 (UTC)What's wrong with this?
It's true after all.
I wanted to make a wikiproject about ferrets and weasels but it became to small a range so i have made a bigger wikiprojects including all animals in the Musteloidea super family which include both ferrets and weasels and much similar animals. Support would be appreceated.
you can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Proposals#Weasels
i also made a little template for the project,
I hope you like it.
This wikiproject is for the superfamily of Musteloidea which currently and surprisingly does not have an article yet. This superfamily includes ferrets and weasels and all of our other furry little weasel like friends. Please put your name on it so this article could have it's very own wikiproject outside of wikiproject animals.
Teh Ferret 19:51, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
Don't we have more info on weasels? Kolanak 12:32, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
What about saying a word about Pop Goes the Weasel somewhere in this article? 195.56.77.16 13:52, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
Yes, this seems quite weasonable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.18.189.205 (talk) 22:53, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
How can we get rid of the words 'dominic is an uber weasel'??? I tried to edit the article but these words do not show up in the edit scren. Thanks 87.113.83.222 (talk) 17:36, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
The pop-culture section of this article is far too large, perhaps even larger then the factual information about the weasel. Most other animal articles either limit the pop-culture to a small % of the total article, or eliminate it all together. I propose this article do the same. Trivial pop-culture should not outweigh factual information. 65.167.146.130 (talk) 15:37, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
I removed this line until a reference can be found. That's a bit too strange to remain uncited. Reb42 (talk) 23:49, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
Table aint working.. I dont know whats wrong, just passed by =) 24.132.178.117 (talk) 19:32, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
is the picture vandalism? i've found a better picture.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by Solar Flute (talk • contribs) 01:32, 29 May 2009 (UTC)
I think a while ago there was an article called 'list of fictional weasels' but apparently it was deleted for some reason. Can anyone make another one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.112.224.72 (talk) 06:45, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
I have suggested that Weasel war dance be merged here (assuming that article is legit and can have some refereces added), presumably as a new section, as it is too narrow in scope to be a stand alone article. Ecphora (talk) 12:12, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
The page is locked, but there's some obvious vandalism on it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cpell (talk • contribs) 12:33, 23 December 2010 (UTC)
Right now, the page only describes the literal creature itself. I think a lot of people, myself included, may have come to this page wondering why the word "weasel" is used to describe a sneaky person or what a sneaky person does, such as "weasel words." A quick dictionary.com search does not explain this in any etymology sources I see, except for the following:
Perhaps actual or purported characteristics of weasels could be described to explain why the word "weasel" is used in this way. And please, don't use weasel words to explain it. Midtempo-abg (talk) 18:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
After searching the OED and several online Old English dictionaries (http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/ http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm http://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/), I have found no references to the alleged word "weatsop". However, I have found two forms of an ancestral word to "weasel" that match well with the modern form: "weosule" and "wesle".
I suspect that "weatsop" is a modern misspelling, as "weat" is not an Old English word, and "sop" does not exist ("sopa" and "sopp" exist, but (following the comcast site) mean "sup, sip, draught" and "offula, sop", respectively). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.94.53.52 (talk) 20:48, 17 June 2012 (UTC)
Is there any good reason why the word "polecat" in the Terminology section links to the Wiktionary page for that word, rather than to the Wikipedia page?Czrisher (talk) 21:13, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
A nate of weasels seems to be a pack of weasels, judging from context. How come I couldn't find it in the Oxford English Dictionary? Different spelling? Sprocedato (talk) 07:27, 24 January 2014 (UTC)
added 2019/12/7 ----
I too have been unable to find reference to this term, even by searching for "weasel nate" at Google Scholar, a place where you would expect experts to use the proper terminology. Could it be a typo or a dialect term?
Well. According to the map Mustela's range does not comprise Anatolia, Indian sub-continent etc. This cannot be true and is in conflict with the map in the entry on Mustela nivalis (the least weasel), and with its own text in the Mustela entry. Can the map be corrected or replaced? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.96.145.226 (talk) 08:21, 19 August 2014 (UTC)
http://laughingsquid.com/ozzy-the-weasel-adorably-interrupts-his-humans-video-games-by-playing-with-his-thumb/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Benvhoff (talk • contribs) 01:45, 1 January 2015 (UTC)
Unbelievable picture and story:
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Weasel/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
If weasels grow up to 35 cm long, does this include the tail? A few sentences later it says the tail can be 33cm long, so there is evidently a discrepency. |
Last edited at 00:31, 1 February 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 10:21, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
The word nateoccurs in the Japanese Folklore section of this article. I can find that word neither in the Oxford English Dictionary nor the Merriam-Webster Unabridged. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jrundin (talk • contribs) 17:35, 7 March 2020 (UTC)
Though I am not an expert at weasels I would love to learn 166.137.163.38 (talk) 02:02, 18 February 2022 (UTC)
I am researching on weasels. I love to learn about animals 166.137.163.38 (talk) 02:03, 18 February 2022 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:
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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2022 and 2 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Shellypopshe (article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by Shellypopshe (talk) 18:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
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Weasel in Hungarian is “menyét” 24.193.36.121 (talk) 00:41, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
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