If you shake the family tree harder, badgers, wolverines and otters are also distant relatives. As a clan, the mustelids are typically slender, elongated animals with short legs, a small head and short fur. Their needle-like canine teeth are designed to pierce the throat and brain of small animals, particularly rodents. The species name, Mustela, means one who carries off mice, and all weasels are accomplished mousers. However, to reap the benefits of their small, dynamic world, the weasels can t afford to be picky eaters.
Shrews form an important part of their winter diet.
Though they occasionally eat fish, weasels are poor swimmers, paddling clumsily with their backs arched out of water. Weasels have an earned reputation as fierce, efficient predators that will attack animals several times their own size. The weasel s habit of killing larger prey and killing several animals at a time stems from its habit of storing or caching surplus food for later use. Weasels track mice through their winter runways and lairs. 1998 Small caches scattered about can provide a series of small meals.