Northern pocket gopher (_Thomomys_).--In "July, 1939, near Stillwater
[Nevada], Alcorn pursued . . . [a] weasel and caused it to drop . . .
a pocket gopher [_Thomomys bottae_] which was about two-thirds grown"
(Hall, 1946:192). Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale (1937:233) write that
"at least twice, weasels in the [Yosemite] Valley were seen carrying
pocket gophers." Relative to _Thomomys talpoides_ in the vicinity of
Treesbank, Manitoba, Criddle and Criddle (1925:146) record that on
September 11, 1918, an individual of _Mustela frenata longicauda_ took
seven pocket gophers dead. . . . It seized the rodents by the middle of
their back and held them high while carrying them away. They were
stored in a gopher burrow some two hundred yards distant. On February
17, 1921, "Came across the marks of a weasel carting some object over
the snow. An investigation revealed a recently-killed pocket gopher
with its captor still in possession." Criddle (1930:279), at Aweme,
Manitoba, "frequently observed this weasel [_M. f. longicauda_] . . .
carrying a pocket gopher to its larder, and twice it has been
encountered in mid winter with freshly killed gophers in its
possession." The evidence already presented that weasels levy heavily
on pocket gophers is strengthened by the many references in the
literature to weasels having been caught in traps set for pocket
gophers in the burrows of those rodents and by the many statements, not
quoted here, that living quarters of weasels are in burrows made
originally by pocket gophers. For example, the present writer, in an
account of the Mammals of Nevada (Hall, 1946:191, 192), has said of the
long-tailed weasel, _Mustela frenata nevadensis_, that "All the three
dens that were excavated . . . were originally burrows of pocket
gophers. . . . Although we have found weasels in many situations in
Nevada, . . . they most often were obtained from the burrows of pocket
gophers." Excluding the weasels taken by Alcorn, more specimens of the
remaining lot were caught in traps set in the burrows of pocket gophers
than by all other means combined. All of the 22 weasels taken by Alcorn
[within a radius of 10 miles of Fallon] were obtained in gopher traps.
Mexican pocket gopher (_Cratogeomys_).--At Chalchicomula, 8000 feet,
Puebla, Nelson (1918:470 and letter dated March 9, 1928) saw a weasel
fastened to a pocket gopher. Nelson obtained the pocket gopher and
found that its neck muscles were torn loose from the skull.
Grasshopper mouse (_Onychomys_).--Barber and Cockerell (1898:189) found
remains of this mouse in the stomach of a weasel at Mesilla Park, New
Mexico.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account