ERMINE/SHORT-TAILED WEASEL. Ermine are 16 inches long including a 4 inch tail. They weigh 6-8 ounces. White fur with a black-tipped tail is the winter coloration. In the summer they are brown with a white underpart.

Four to six young are born in April. They are only 1 1/2 inches long and weigh 1/10 ounce. They may live 5-6 years. Ermine eat mice, voles, lemmings, pikas, snowshoe hares, birds, insects, and fish carcasses. They live in bruch or forested areas with broken terrain throughout most of Alaska.

Their predators are minks, martens, red foxes, coyotes, wolverines, goshawks, owls and people.