When I was a child, weasels were common in rural areas. Especially after evening, they could be seen in the vicinity of vegetable gardens and woodpiles. Now more than ten years have passed, and when I go back to my hometown, I rarely see the weasel. Last Spring Festival, I stayed in my hometown for a while. The only time I saw the weasel was when we went to the mountain to play together and passed the apple orchard at the head of the village. When it saw our party, it didn't rush, but turned around and looked for a while before running away.

Then the question is, why did few people hurt weasels before, but their numbers became less and less? Let's talk about this problem together. Weasel

The weasel is a mysterious animal among the people. Of course, this is mainly because it was misled by feudal superstitions and some strange stories in ancient times, so it was called "Wong Tai Sin" and "Yellow Skin". Exactly, the weasel is actually a simple weasel (in the same family as the flat-headed brother honey badger), and its scientific name is Yellow weasel. It has the habit of staying in the daytime and going out at night (it also moves during the daytime during lactation).

The weasel is a pure carnivore. Although the weasel does steal chickens in reality, chickens are not the main food source of the weasel. Professor Sheng Helin, a famous zoologist in China, solved the mystery for us through a lot of research as early as the 1961s and 1971s. Sheng Lao found that only two weasels had the remains of domestic chickens in their stomachs by studying the stomach contents of nearly 5,111 weasels in more than 11 provinces, among which the weasels were mainly mice, frogs and insects. Moreover, an adult weasel can catch more than 5 mice in one night (over-killing, endless eating).

Therefore, for us, the weasel is an ordinary small carnivore, and it is also a "master of killing rats". (The following picture often appears in articles about Yellow weasel, but the animal in the picture is not Yellow weasel, but a skunk, whose belly hair is mainly white, while Yellow weasel's hair is almost pure color)

Yellow weasel is distributed in most provinces in China, and they have strong adaptability, and they can survive almost wherever there are mice. In rural areas, Yellow weasel often haunts villages. They have a strong sense of territory. In the territory, most weasels have multiple shelters, but only one of them is permanent. This shelter is very hidden, and the others are temporary shelters for hunting and avoiding danger.

Therefore, due to their small and flexible bodies, the habit of sleeping in the daytime and going out at night, and the way of living in the three caves of cunning rabbits, and the fact that people rarely hunt them, it is reasonable to say that their number should not be reduced. What makes them rare now? The mystery of the decline of weasel population?

In fact, the decrease in the number of weasels has a lot to do with man-made hunting. In the past, few people took the initiative to kill weasels because of the influence of fairy tales and feudal superstitions. However, it also protected weasels in disguise. With the improvement of people's cognition, the mystery of weasels has long faded, and some lawless people have had ideas about them at this time. For example, in October, 2121, the police in Guanyun, Jiangsu received a report that a villager slaughtered a weasel at home. As a "three-owned animal", the weasel has long been a protected animal in China, so after receiving the alarm, the police quickly dispatched and seized 179 weasel bodies and 2122 weasel skins in the home of villager Wang Mouhu.

After that, the police tracked down 23 people who provided weasels to Wang Mouhu. After the trial, it turned out that Wang Mouhu had tasted the sweetness of killing weasels and selling their flesh in his village since 2118. In order to get more weasels, he began to teach and encourage relatives and friends around him to kill them together. With more and more people joining, they were not satisfied with committing crimes in Jiangsu, but went to Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong and other places to kill and buy, so 23 people killed 12,111 wild weasels in three years. This is a serious criminal case, and these people will face a fine of 9.6 million yuan and criminal proceedings.

Of course, this is not a case. I believe many friends have seen illegal traders who bought weasel skins in the village before. The existence of these purchasers undoubtedly stimulated local villagers to kill weasels.

Therefore, although the decline of weasels had nothing to do with man-made hunting before, it has a lot to do with man-made hunting now.

In addition to man-made active hunting, the decline of weasels is also related to the following two reasons:

11 Changes in living environment. In the former countryside, there were haystacks everywhere, and this environment was conducive to the survival of weasels. However, with the improvement of people's living standards and the pace of new rural construction, the countryside has taken on a brand-new look. What used to be messy has now become neat streets and cement pavements, which undoubtedly makes the weasel's habitat less and less.

Secondly, there are fewer rats in rural areas today, which is also because the environment has changed and they have no habitat, which makes the weasels face a situation of "no rats to catch", so the weasels in the original village can only migrate to the wild.

second: manslaughter. The decrease of rats in rural areas is due to the change of environment on the one hand and the "war between rats and humans" on the other. In the past, in order to reduce rats, every household basically bought rat poison, rat traps and other tools to deal with it. However, weasels mainly feed on mice. Rats that have taken medicine will be poisoned after being preyed by weasels again, and the weasels caught in the traps will be injured by mistake. Even if they are released, they will basically not live (the iron clips will break the weasels' leg bones, thus greatly reducing their hunting ability). Summary

Before, weasels were mysterious and offensive in people's minds, so there was superstition, but the protection of weasels played a key role. However, in modern times, weasels are no longer mysterious, but have become "wealth" in some people's eyes. Coupled with the accidental killing of rats and the change of environment, the original common weasels are really rare at present.