Also called the short-tailed weasel, this species swaps its brown summer coat for pure white fur in winter, the true “ermine” pelt long prized in fur trade. Ohio’s 21 records lean toward late spring, with May and June ahead of the rest of the year, likely tracking when kits are being raised and adults are moving more to hunt for a growing family.
Ohio hasn’t assigned the species a settled NatureServe rank, which is a data gap rather than a sign it’s secure or missing. A fast, tenacious hunter of mice and voles, it can take prey several times its own weight, and its low record count probably owes as much to how secretive and fast-moving it is as to true scarcity.
Full species profile
