Some Kind of Weasel Open Thread

Massimo @Rainmaker1973

Photographer Martin Le-May was walking through a London park with his wife, hoping to show her a green woodpecker for the first time, when he snapped this incredible photo: a weasel riding a flying woodpecker.

It's real. It's not a photo of a commuting weasel, but a weasel attempting and failing to have lunch.

As much as we'd love to say this weasel is embarking on an epic journey atop his very own luck dragon, what Le-May actually witnessed was a failed attempt at lunch. Small and adorable as they may be, weasels are voracious hunters and have been known to chomp down on a wide variety of prey items including moles, squirrels, hares, snakes and birds.

"The woodpecker landed in front of us and I feared the worst," says Le-May. "I guess our presence, maybe 25 metres away, momentarily distracted the weasel. The woodpecker seized the opportunity and flew up and away into some bushes away to our left. Quickly the bird gathered its self-respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight. The weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry."

Not a weasel:

A couple of months ago I posted a video of a "bearcat," which I wrongly called a "maturon" or something. A commenter told the critter's actual name was a binturong. (I didn't correct it because I only saw this on my phone and it's hard to edit via the phone.)

Anyway, here's a short video about binturongs.

posted by Ace at 05:20 PM

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