The least weasel is the smallest carnivore in the world, barely bigger than a chipmunk, and one of the few North American mammals whose coat turns fully white for winter. Ohio has only 25 records since 2000, 10 of them from Summit County, and more of them fall between October and January than in summer.
That small cold-month lean likely reflects visibility more than behavior: a small white animal against bare ground or snow is far easier for someone to notice than the same weasel hunting mice through thick green cover in July. Ohio hasn’t assigned it a numeric NatureServe rank (SNR, unranked).
Full species profile
