From the files of Don Kirk…Part 1. The Weasel
A weasel carrying a dead chipmunk bounds up the road toward our campsite. Weasels run a little differently from other animals. They have long narrow bodies with short legs. The weasel can walk around on its four legs like any other mammal, but when they need some speed the front legs leap forward and the body straightens. The hind legs then leap forward to catch up which makes the back hump up like a giant inchworm. Even with carrying a limp chipmunk in his jaws this weasel is making good time.
The weasel runs within five or six yards of me and crosses to the other side of the road where there is an open space with abandoned squirrel burrows. Still carrying the chipmunk the weasel wiggles its long narrow body down one of the burrows. Weasels were once thought to be entirely nocturnal, but it turns out they are active when their prey is active. At night they hunt for other nocturnal animals such as mice and pack rats. During the day they go after chipmunks and ground squirrels or even a small rabbit if opportunity occurs.
This weasel is 18 or 20 inches in length, with a long tail. There is more than one kind of weasel around here and the size of this one tells me this is a male long-tailed weasel. The females are much smaller.
These animals store food. I remember my grandfather told me about finding a weasel cache in one of his haystacks. In a small cavity at the end of a short tunnel through the hay he found a stack of 16 dead mice. He said that although they did smell a little ripe, they had not really decayed but mostly just dried up. I suppose that might be equivalent to jerky for a weasel. Some minutes have passed, and my weasel has not reappeared. I suspect it is either dining on the chipmunk or taking a nap.
So why is this weasel in the campground and running around in broad daylight? If I were to walk into the surrounding forest I could sit on a log all day and never see a weasel. Few ground squirrels and chipmunks would be in sight; whereas in the campground these little rodents are running around all over the place. I would guess that several weasels are making their home in this campground. Why are the small mammals in such abundance in the campground and not outside it? The answer is that humans bring in lots of extra food. Being somewhat messy creatures, they tend to drop cookies, chips, bread, and other items on the ground. I am guilty of this myself. Normally I pick up what I drop and discard it properly. Often, a ground squirrel or chipmunk beats me to it. Golden-mantled ground squirrels are better at this than chipmunks. Chipmunks are smaller and more cautious. Once I tucked a small piece of bread partially under my foot. Soon a golden-mantled ground squirrel appeared, quickly pulled away the exposed piece of bread and ran off into the shrubbery. Moments later the same squirrel–I think–was back. He proceeded to dig out the rest of the bread from under my shoe.
The answer to the question is the available food supply. The weasel is here because of the abundant supply of small rodents. The rodents are here because of the abundant supply of food that humans discard, accidentally or otherwise. This results in a kind of special ecological community…