American ermine records in Minnesota cluster at Agassiz, Tamarac, and Rice Lake national wildlife refuges, three northern and west-central sites that put the species firmly in the state’s wetland and forest-edge country. All 175 records come from iNaturalist alone, with no GBIF specimen data behind them.
Reports spike hard in January, February, and December, winter months when the ermine’s white coat stands out sharply against snow and makes an otherwise secretive weasel far easier to notice. The summer trough doesn’t mean the animal disappears; it just gets harder to spot in its brown warm-season coat against green cover.
Full species profile
