- The stoat is a small-sized mammal, with males 19–32 cm and females slightly smaller at 17–27 cm.
- Stoats belong to the mustelid family.
- Stoats are also known as short-tailed weasels.
- The stoat is nominated as one of the world’s 100 most invasive species.
- The stoat ranks as one of North America’s top 10 invasive mammals.
- Stoats are solitary animals.
- In North America, Stoats are found throughout Canada and Alaska down south through most of the northern United States to central California.
- Stoats inhabit various habitats, including moorland, woodland, farms, coastal areas, and mountainous regions across the Northern Hemisphere.
- For 101 facts on weasels, click here.
- Stoats have a long, slender, cylindrical body and neck, short legs, and a long tail.
- The stoat is more prominent in size and weight than a weasel.
- Stoats weigh, on average, 200 to 445 grams.
- Male stoats are more significant than females.
- The stoat is noticeably more significant than a weasel and has a distinctive black tip to its tail.
- The stoat has an average lifespan of between 4 to 5 years.
- Stoats are solitary except during the breeding season when stoats come together to mate.
- The stoat is a carnivorous animal.
- The diet of the stoat consists mainly of other animals.
- Stoats hunt animals, including rodents, reptiles, and amphibians.
- For 101 facts on moose, click here.
- The stoat’s favorite food is rabbit.
- The stoat has been said to immobilize prey such as rabbits by dancing.
- Although the stoat is small, they hunt several animals more significantly than themselves.
- The stoat has exceptionally sharp teeth, which can issue a nasty and painful bite.
- Young stoats are raised in the warmer months of May and June.
- Stoats delay the implant of the fertilized egg in the wall of the uterus for 280 days.
- The pregnancy period is between 21 and 28 days.
- The young babies are weaned at five weeks.
- For 101 facts on narwhals, click here.
- The average lifespan of a stoat is very short, typically one and a half years. However, they can live up to 7 years of age.
- The female stoat gives birth to between 5 and 15 babies.
- The mother stoat will do anything to protect their young.
- Some larger animals a stoat will hunt include foxes, dogs, cats, and snakes.
- The mother nurses the stoat babies until they are over a month old. The pups will then begin to learn to hunt.
- Stoats can kill their prey at 12 weeks.
- The pups are independent by the time they are three months of age.
- Male stoats are called dogs, bucks, jacks, or hobs.
- Female stoats are called bitches, does, or jills.
- For 101 facts on armadillos, click here.
- Baby stoats are known as kits.
- A group of stoats is called a caravan.
- Stoats are born blind, deaf, and toothless and covered in a very fine down.
- When Stoats are three weeks old, they grow their first set of teeth.
- Stoats can eat solid food when they are four weeks old.
- Baby Stoats’ eyes don’t open until they are about a month old.
- Baby Stoats will drink their mother’s milk until they are twelve weeks old.
- Humans have hunted stoats for their fur.
- Stoats have two types of fur, summer fur and winter fur.
- The fur of a stoat is chestnut brown in summer.
- In winter, in the northern regions of North America, stoat fur becomes thicker and turns white. The white fur is known as ermine.
- For 101 facts on bighorn sheep, click here.
- The winter fur is dense, silky, and short.
- White fur covers the stoat in wintery conditions.
- The summer fur of a stoat is rougher, shorter, and sparse than the winter coat.
- The stoat is an opportunistic killer. They rush and check every available burrow or crevice for food.
- In all seasons, the stoat has a black tip to its tail.
- Stoats have a good sense of sight, smell, and hearing, which they use to help them prey.
- Stoats are very alert and good climbers. They may take young birds from a nest.
- Stoats are strong swimmers
- Stoats are capable of crossing wide rivers.
- Stoats make nests of grass and leaves. They make their nests in hollow trunks, molehills, walls, banks, caves, and rock crevices.
- The female stoat is territorial in the breeding season. However, male stoats are not.
- For 101 facts on grizzly bears, click here.
- Stoats, like a squirrel, can descend a tree trunk headfirst.
- A stoat is capable of killing animals much more significantly than itself.
- Stoats kill their prey1 by a bite to the back of the neck.
- Stoats can move at speeds of 20 miles per hour when hunting.
- The larger male stoats generally take hunt larger prey than females.
- Stoats usually travel alone, except when it is a mating season or they are a mother with older offspring.
- Stoat communication occurs mainly by scent, as the stoat has a sensitive olfactory system.
- Stoats do not see color as well as humans, but they can see better at night.
- Stoats have a good sense of smell, and they hunt using scent.
- For 101 facts on blue whales, click here.
- The stoat releases an overpowering musky smell from its anal glands.
- Stoats can spray a bad-smelling fluid when they are scared.
- Stoats are one of the few animals able to follow burrowing mammals into their homes.
- Stoats are surprisingly multi-talented: they can run, swim, climb trees and even dance.
- Stoats moved over to North America approximately 500,000 years ago.
- The stoat usually moves by a series of jumps, with its back strongly arched.
- Stoats can travel long distances very quickly.
- Stoats have been known to travel 70 km in just two weeks.
- Stoats are intelligent creatures, hypnotizing prey with dance and making rabbits forget to run away.
- Stoats are very suspicious of bait and traps and are challenging to catch.
- For 101 facts on polar bears, click here.
- Stoats tend to occur in areas with lower temperatures and higher snowfall.
- A stoat can do a great deal of damage. Like a fox, they will kill many birds but only eat one.
- The stoat is usually a silent animal but can produce a range of sounds.
- A kit produces a slight chirping noise.
- Adults trill before mating and show submission through quiet trilling, whining, and squealing noises.
- Stoats will mainly hunt rats, mice, birds, rabbits, hares, possums, and insects.
- Stoats will eat lizards, freshwater crayfish, roadkill, hedgehogs, and fish.
- Stoats are capable of swimming up to about 1.5km.
- Stoats can be a nuisance due to the size of their families.
- For 101 facts on wolverines, click here.
- A female stoat can produce up to 12 kits at a time but usually have 4-6 babies.
- Stoats can attack and defeat animals up to twenty times heavier than them.
- Stoats are not endangered animals but have been hunted and farmed for their fur.
- Stoats can be used to control rabbit populations.
- Stoats are long and thin with short legs, small ears, and thick warm fur.
- A stoat’s fur is brown but changes to white in the winter.
- Stoats are furry mammals with long, thin bodies.
- Stoats have a pointed snout.
- The stoat is on the IUCN red list as the slightest concern.
- Stoats have eyes that are black, round, and slightly protruding.
- Stoats like open landscapes and will avoid forests.
- For 101 facts on jaguars, click here.
- Stoats prefer sandy, dry areas such as hedgerows, fallow land, and dry ditches and embankments.
- Stoats communicate with each other by using hissing and singing sounds.
- Despite their small size, stoats can quickly eat five mice daily.
- Stoats are most active during sunrise and sunset.
If you are unsure of the difference between a stoat and a weasel, this article I have written should help. You can read it here.