Mustela nivalis pygmaea

The Siberian weasel is a weasel that lives in most or all of Siberia, Russia. It extends into the Ural mountains that separate Siberia from western Russia. Then northern Kazakhstan. Then in the central part of Russia it goes southwards into western and central Mongolia, then southern again in the more eastern ranges through North and South Korea. It also lives on the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands, which are just shy of the northern part of Hokkaido, Japan. It may be that Ainu have encountered them in the past. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Least_weasel&oldid=1136276356 
Credit for M. nivalis pygmaea is given as kamtschatica (Dybowksi, 1922). In 1903 a J. Allen wrote or said something noting Putorius pygmaea resemble Mustela rixosa eskimo moreso than Sweden's Mustela nivalis nivalis. Kuroda in 1921 placed this either as Mustela rixosa pygmaea or Mustela pygmaea, the text is a little unclear.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234848784_Geographic_variation_and_intraspecific_taxonomy_of_weasel_Mustela_nivalis_Carnivora_Mustelidae Despite J. Allen feeling that they resembled rixosa more, a more recent study noted that the pygmaea of northeastern Siberia have cranial features that resemble those in Sweden."It should be noted that weasels from Scandinavia and north-west Russia (nivalis) were similar to animals from North-Eastern Siberia (pygmaea). Samples from Western and Eastern Siberia (Yakutia) reveal no significant differences between themselves in the craniometric characters studied (t-criterion). Weasels from Yamal, Urals and Northern Kazakhstan in their turn do not differ notably from animals from Finland and north-western regions of Russia on the one hand, and from weasels of Eastern Siberia on the other. "
== References ==
Category:Mustela
Category:Weasels
Category:Mustela rixosa
Category:Putorius