Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: fierce hunter

Terrible, terrible quality photo, but wanted to add this to my Wild Animals of Alberta set. I'm quite sure this was a once-in-a-lifetime sighting, when a few of us saw a mother Least Weasel with her eight almost full-grown babies, in Fish Creek Park on October 22nd. This was one of the youngsters. We were on a 3+ hour walk in Fish Creek Park (between Votier's Flats and Bebo Grove), when suddenly this adorable family of Least Weasels scuttled through the grass and tangles near the edge of the path. There were eight of these little velvety babies (nearly full-grown, 5.5 inch long) moving "en masse". Amazing to watch them move, for the most part all huddled together.

A terrible quality photo, but I just had to post this - I doubt I will ever see anything like this again! A group of us were on a 3+ hour walk yesterday morning in Fish Creek Park (between Votier's Flats and Bebo Grove). when suddenly this adorable family of Least Weasels scuttled through the grass and tangles near the edge of the path. There were eight of these little velvety babies (nearly full-grown, 5.5 inch long) moving "en masse". Amazing to watch them move, for the most part all huddled together. In this image, they were struggling to get under this log and out the other side to catch up with Mom. You can't just push in front of everyone to get photos, so I wasn't able to move to where I could see them properly - however, better crummy photos than none at all : ) (Map location - a very wild guess at where we saw them, ha). "The least weasel (Mustela nivalis) is the smallest member of the Mustelidae (as well as the smallest of the Carnivora), native to Eurasia, North America and North Africa, though it has been introduced elsewhere. It is classed as Least Concern by the IUCN, due to its wide distribution and presumably large population. Despite its small size, the least weasel is a fierce hunter, capable of killing a rabbit 5-10 times its own weight." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_weasel