Joan Accardi, age 11, of Huntsville, Alabama for her question:
Haw does the ermine change color?
This busy little chicken thief and his relatives live all over the land where there are plenty of birds and smallish animals. His luxurious coat always blonds in with his background and it becomes white only where winter covers the ground with snow. His cousins, who live in the warm south, wear coats of taffy brown and honey color all year round.
The elegant ermine is actually a weasel in disguise. He is a blood thirsty little hunter and one of the few animals who kill for the sport of killing. Every year he murders countless of our enemies the rats and mice a fact we should remember when he forgets his manners and raids cur chicken coops. Such a restless hunter must be able to sneak up on his victims which is why he wears a coat to blend in with his background.
The weasel that changes into an ermine lives in the northland where the ground is covered with a snow white blanket for months on end. The first snows arrive in the fall, They may melt or stay around in patches and the blanket of wintery white covers the ground gradually. The weasel takes his cue from the weather. The change from his summer coat of browns and tans to his winter coat of white is also a gradual process.
After the first snow, a few patches of summery brown fur molt away and luxurious white fur grows in to replace them. For a while, the slinky fellow is marked like a pinto pony with patches of white and brown. It may take ten days to three weeks before the change of clothing is complete. The weasel is now a snow white ermine and all that remains of his summertime garb is a black tip at the end of his silken tail.
His winter coat is thick and dense for extra warmth and the little hunter is clothed in rich ermine, the fur of kings.
He belongs to the best dressed family in tie whole animal kingdom. The weasel, alias the ermine, is cousin to the high priced mink, the high quality martini, the precious otter and the luxurious sable. His slinky body is about ten inches long plus about five inches of pencil thin tail. His graceful movements are lithe and quick. And his slender body is a small powerhouse of slithery muscles.
In summer the weasels living in warm; and temperate regions wear silken coats of taffy brown. The southern cousins keep the same color scheme all year. Those living farther north shed their browns and become white to match the winter snow. Those living in the Arctic wear honey colors during the summer and change to white in the winter. But every one of them wears that proud black tip at the and of his tail summer and winters