Look what's living under my shed!

Oh goodness, this little stoat/ermine is super adorable.



Nic was trying to entice him with peanuts... no go. Give me meat woman! So I threw him a piece of turkey.

So. Cute :heart: :thud:

At this time of year, we usually have a pair of raccoons living in the shed. They don't stay for more than 3 or 4 weeks but now we have this little cutie. Oh gosh. I must resist keeping him. lol

OMG he is so cute!!!!!!!

What a beautiful little creature!

I love the contrast between his coat and eyes. Just adorable!

Oh wow, he is just adorable.

Holy Cow. What is THAT! We don't have anything like that where I live. He is absolutely adorable. Are they related to ferrets?

Oh my god he is too darn cute! I love Ermines!! Supposedly they are native to where I live too but I never see them. You are so lucky!

How beautiful!!! :joy:

We once saw one of these lovely creatures in our back yard, but we were not able to get a photo. Your photos are great; hope the little critter stays around for at least the winter. You won't ever have to worry about wild rats & mice getting into your place.

:heart:

That is... oddly enough, I'm not freaked out by this particular member of the weasel family - never have been.

Stoats are utterly adorable - and the contrast between his fur and his obsidian-black eyes... dang woman, you take an artistic photo!!

It must be so hard to stop yourself keeping him haha.

So cool! The only thing I've ever had live under (and in) my shed was a skunk that had babies and sprayed my house mate's dog. Not quite as cool.

adreabri said:

Holy Cow. What is THAT! We don't have anything like that where I live. He is absolutely adorable. Are they related to ferrets?

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I was going to say the same thing!!
I've never seen this animal before, are they wild?

What the heck! Where do you live? When can I move in?

Ermine are indeed related to ferrets. They're mustelines (aka, weasels) that live in cold northern regions. They're extremely popular for their fur, they're extremely soft and (obviously) bright white (only in winter, though, as I remember...I think like other arctic animals they have a white winter coat and a different color summmer coat). They're also related to minks, which are also a popular fur species.

Needless to say, we don't have any of them down here in the deserts of New Mexico BUT we're lucky enough to have a surviving population of Black-footed Ferrets, so I guess it's a switch-off.

This guy is painfully cute.

I've never seen an ermine before until this morning. I was putting Roxie out for her business and I noticed that she was staring at something and sure enough there was the most adorable thing peeking out from under the shed. I'm surprised it wasn't scared of Roxie, my german shepherd mix. I really thought it was a baby ferret because of its small size. It was only around 8" long and the head so tiny. I tried to coax it out with peanuts thinking it was somebody's pet baby ferret and the ermine looked like it wanted to come out but it was too scared. And then I called Jo to come outside and see. lol

OMG! Can we name him? I vote Yurt!

Aww now that is the cutest thing ever.

I don't think I could help myself in wanting to keep it...lol