AMUSTELID by another name would whiff as bad. The mammalian Mustelidae family comes in all sorts of shapes, from bulky badger to slinky stoat, but all are carnivorous, with well-developed scent glands under the tail. Or, in plain Anglo-Saxon, their bottoms doth make pongs like stink-bombs.
Brock the badger's shambling corporeality notwithstanding, Britain's mustelids are generally long-bodied beings, with short legs and a highly flexible spinal column. Think Tarka the Otter. Or a furry, bendy tube with four flurrying stumps. Apart from Brock and Tarka, our native mustelids are the pine marten, the stoat, the weasel, and the polecat. To this pack of six must be added the American mink, now running wild across much of the isles following its escape from fur farms in the 1930s. As pipe-shaped mustelid morphology has low thermal value, the smaller mustelids are compensated by a dense, sometimes luxurious fur coating. As are said mink, the pelts of which once upon a Hollywood time adorned every screen goddess.
The mini mustelids also possess very active metabolism-a weasel burns as much as 30% of its body weight per day. Their seeking of breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea, and midnight snack is near hyper-active. Mustelids are also beady-eyed inquisitive. Hence 'ferret about', the ferret being a domesticated polecat.
The Mustelidae arose about 16.1 million years ago, so must be counted among Britain's oldest landowners. Paleontological evidence shows that badgers have been snouting about the place for at least 250,000 years. Human interaction with our mustelid landlords has been troubled and ambivalent. We have baited badger and hunted otter. In Tudor times, we employed the weasel as a household mouser, but, more recently, the beast is ingrained in the popular psyche as sly and untrustworthy. "To weasel out' of a situation is synonymous with clever, albeit dishonest avoidance.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 20, 2022 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 20, 2022 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
