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I really struggle to get my head round weasels

288 replies

HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 18:46

I've seen them. I know what they look like, and often catch them whizzing across the road at weasel warp speed.

But their size always surprises me. Every time. I know they are small. But when you look at a picture of a weasel or think weasel, you think bigger. You don't think "oh, a weasel. That's a little bigger than a hamster that is". Or I don't. I go, ooooh a weasel. Wow, it's tiny, every time, the surprise never abates.

I struggle with weasel physics. That the actual weasel is not the size of the concept of weasel in my head.

I'm not sure how to fix it. Confused

OP posts:
monsterchild · 06/06/2013 20:16

Gobblers, prairie dogs rock! They are as good as meerkats for the looking and barking

littlewhitebag · 06/06/2013 20:16

I get confused between voles and shrews. Are they the same thing? What is different about them? My dog catches them (one of them don't know which) and chews them like they were tasty gum.

HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 20:16

So how did they go from bloody big fish thing with facial horn to imaginary horse with horn?

Did someone lop it off a narwhal and stick it on a donkey or what?

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AmazingBouncingFerret · 06/06/2013 20:14

We have a local national trust house that has a narwhal horn in the hall. Everytime we're there DS likes to loudly inform me and the rest of the room that "in olden days" people believed they were unicorn horns but really they are the horn of a whale called a narwhal. That kid is going to be the king of loud parenting when he's all grown up...

GobblersKnob · 06/06/2013 20:12

My kids do a great line in whenever we are out and about.

HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 20:11

I think we are ALL traumatised by the alien mole.

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LadyBeagleEyes · 06/06/2013 20:10

I always thought weasels and stoats were a lot bigger, sort of the size of a pine marten.
My cat caught a stoat once and it was teensy.
I used to feed a pine marten with jam sandwiches, it used to come right up to the window ledge.

DameFanny · 06/06/2013 20:10

I was really enjoying this thread till I clicked on the mole link [quiver]

GobblersKnob · 06/06/2013 20:09

Their kick ass facial horn, BeerTricks Wink

HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 20:09

Gobblers, dh is driven mad by the rest of the household singing it Grin. I also like

flyiiiiin Sqiiiirells, bombing through sky looking superfly.....

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BeerTricksPotter · 06/06/2013 20:07

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cakesonatrain · 06/06/2013 20:07

I had no idea weasels were that small.

I'm with you on the giraffe thing though.

And beavers... How do they build a dam? I have seen them patching up one that already exists, but how do they start it off, without their materials just floating away??

GobblersKnob · 06/06/2013 20:06

Oh god
You too?
Causin' a commotion
'Coz they are so awesome

HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 20:05

I remember being thrilled to discover Narwhals were real Blush

This is a favourite off the dragon household

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GobblersKnob · 06/06/2013 20:04

This thread has made me realise how much I have missed mumsnet Smile, pissing degree.

TapselteerieO · 06/06/2013 20:03

MrsWolo surely they are worse? Moles with wriggly caterpillars on their noses yuck, seem pretty alien to me!

TapselteerieO · 06/06/2013 20:01

I just want to boast I have seen a pine Martin in the wild, but I've not seen a giraffe in the wild. I was cycling home one day and a weasel ran along the dry stane dyke beside me, and a stoat killed our guinea pigs - so I don't mind weasels and dislike stoats.

I have also seen an adder sun bathing. My favourite recent wild critter sighting was seeing a bee beetle which is like a ladybird that is dressed up as a bee.

Dh(who is Irish) calls weasels stoats or stoats weasels - I know weasels are weasily recognised and stoats are stoatally different - but I just can't remember if they have one or neither in Ireland.

BeerTricksPotter · 06/06/2013 20:01

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HoneyDragon · 06/06/2013 20:00

Why has someone exploded that moles nose? Why?

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GobblersKnob · 06/06/2013 20:00

Star nosed moles were not made on earth, the clue's in the name, clearly alien beings.

Beavers are indeed fucking massive.

MrsWolowitz · 06/06/2013 20:00

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GrandPoohBah · 06/06/2013 19:59

Oh, and yes - Tasmanian Devils are the ones dying of face-cancer.

ISeeSmallPeople · 06/06/2013 19:58

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GrandPoohBah · 06/06/2013 19:58

Rats are cute and make the best pets. When one of my pair died, the other buried her, it was very sweet.

I did not know weasels were that small. I also hadn't realised badgers were quite as big as they are until I moved to suburbia near a wood and saw them IRL.

I want a ferret,

BeerTricksPotter · 06/06/2013 19:56

This reply has been deleted

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