Around Paradise Valley this weasel has found excellent hunting near the Lodge and Inn. Here visitors spend considerable time feeding chipmunks and ground squirrels, and attract large numbers with the quantities of food offered. With the slopes literally swarming with choice tid-bits, weasels have taken over each summer and created havoc among the chipmunks and ground squirrels, not to mention arousing the ire of all visitors concerned. Yet some check is necessary on these rodents, which might otherwise multiply beyond the ability of the habitat to support them. In spite of the efforts of the angry onlookers, mother weasel will dodge her way out among the fleeing animals and capture one to take home for her young. Records show that families of weasels have lived beneath the Lodge and Guide House for several years, reaping a rich harvest of food each summer from the rodent population. LEAST WEASEL, ERMINE _Mustela ermina gulosa_ Hall The least weasel is small, with a total length of around ten inches. In the summer it is dark brown above, darkest on the head, with the underparts whitish, usually tinged with pale yellow. The tip of the tail is black. In the winter the coat may range in color from a light brown among animals at lower elevations to a pure white at higher altitudes. The tip of the tail remains black, however. _Specimens in park collection:_ RNP-70, RNP-87, and RNP-111; Longmire Museum Park Headquarters. This weasel ranges through the Cascade Mountains from southwestern British Columbia to Southern Oregon. It is found in the park throughout the forested regions, and up as high as forest line, but is most abundant in the lower elevations. The weasel never fails to impress one with its utter fearlessness and bewildering agility. It is very inquisitive and will probe around buildings as readily as the rocky slopes in its seemingly never-ending search for food. Its victims are limited only by their size, as the weasel shows no hesitation in attacking anything that it can possibly kill. For the most part its food consists of small rodents, such as chipmunks, ground squirrels and mice. Its lust for killing, and the occasional damage it does around poultry, combine to give it an exceedingly bad reputation which completely overshadows the economic good it does. As a natural control of rodent pests in agricultural and grazing regions it has no equal. WOLVERINE _Gulo luscus luteus_ Elliot