Meet The Mustelids!

The Mustelids are one of the most respected groups of mammals on the planet and contain some well known animals like badgers and wolverines. They are all carnivorous and well equipped for life as meat eaters. Most are longer bodied mammals that exhibit shorter, stronger arms, thick dense coats, claws and paws built for digging and teeth meant to annihilate flesh.  Most species live a solitary, mostly nocturnal life and use their anal scent glands to attract others and defend territories. After that, the family of Mustelids can start to vary a lot, which makes for a very diverse family of mammals.

All 56 species of Mustelids are very versatile and incredibly successful. They are found in all terrestrial habitats and living on all continents except Australia and Antarctica.  Due to their diet, many of them are working hard to keep the populations of pests, like mice, at bay and they are all pretty good at hunting. Mustelids are very visual with strong hearing senses, but they are equipped for hunting and tracking down prey with their sense of smell.  Check out the list below of some of the most well known Mustelid Species.

Here is a list of some, but not all, well known Mustelids:

• American Badger
• Honey badger
• European pine marten
• Japanese marten
• Fisher
• Hog badger
• European badger
• Javan ferret-badger
• American marten
• Oriental small-clawed otter
• Sea otter
• Eurasian otter
• Hairy-nosed otter
• Indonesian mountain weasel
• Black-footed ferret
• Least weasel
• Malayan weasel
• Stoat (ermine)
• Steppe polecat
• Colombian weasel
• European Mink
• European polecat
• Domestic ferret
• American mink
• Sea mink
• Greater grison
• Striped polecat
• African striped weasel
• African clawless otter

There is so much more to learn about in the world of Mustelids and you will find it all right here in the Critter Squad Kids' Zone!  Click to explore the all the Mustelid Center and don't forget to stop in the Mammal Center to learn about other carnivorous mammals.