Birds and mustelid interaction.

[OldGreenVulture]

"For example, incidences of pairs preying on species such as the mongoose (Galarella sanguinea), monitor lizard (Varanus spp), tree squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi) and scrub hare (Lepus saxatilis) have been recorded."

"On 10 May 2008 at 1540 H, a breeding pair was observed
perched on a dead tree. The female began to stare intently
and then flew directly toward what had attracted her atten-
tion, landed in the top of a large bush ca. 400 m away, and
stared at the ground below. The male followed ca. 5 sec
later, but flew to the ground below the perched female and
lunged with talons outstretched and wings/tail held back.
The female immediately jumped to the ground with the
male who held a live slender mongoose (Galerella sangui-
nea) in one talon. The female also grasped the mongoose,
which was killed by being ripped apart quickly by the birds’
bills. Both birds ate together without any agonistic behav-
ior for ca. 5 min, while repeatedly looking around."

www.researchgate.net/publication/266263117_Observations_of_Predatory_Behavior_by_White-headed_Vultures

From Carnivora.

carnivora.net/viewtopic.php?p=85682&ttchannel=webpush&ttchannelutm=eyJOIjoiRU1PVElPTl9MSUtFIiwiVSI6MTA0LCJUIjo3NDg4LCJQIjo4NTY4Mn0%3D&ttchanneltime=1573647854#p85682

[8avian8]

Glad to have found this gem of a forum! BTW OGV I mean no disrespect, but mongooses aren't mustelids. They are herpestids, related to felids and hyaenids in the suborder Feliformia. Mustelids are in the other carnivoran suborder, Caniformia.


Anyway, here are some interactions between kestrels and least weasels:


An adult female American kestrel killed a female least weasel of unknown age via ambush, breaking its neck and scalping it:

"On 11 January 1972, in south-central Ohio near the Ross-Pickaway county line, I observed a female American Kestrel (F&o sparverius) fly off a fencepost and drop a small mammal. I identified the latter as a female least weasel (Mustela niosa). The skin of the weasel was torn off the head, and the neck was exposed and broken; otherwise the animal was intact. Captive and wild American Kestrels nearly always attack the head of a prey item first (Roest, The Auk, 74:1-19, 1957; pers. ohs.). This suggests that the weasel was actually killed by the kestrel. The least weasel is not included as a prey item of this species in a survey made by Heinzelman (Wilson Bull., 76:323-330, 1964), and I could find no other records of its being taken by this kestrel--G. SCOTT MILLS, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Accepted 8 November 1973."

From: sora.unm.edu/sites/default/file ... -p0074.pdf



On the other hand, a female least weasel killed a much larger (3-4x larger) European kestrel face to face when the kestrel was grounded, securing a fatal throat bite when the kestrel failed to escape:

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ite ... 5/mode/1up

www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jun ... untrydiary

"However the most extraordinary story I know of involves a weasel that fought with a kestrel - a bird three to four times its own weight - killed it and dragged it down its hole, even holding on to the bird when it was pulled back out by a curious witness."



A large Northern shrike managed to kill a young female stoat under unknown circumstances:

"Granwald (1984) found – and photographed – the mummified remains of the stoat impaled in a shrike’s larder. The stoat was a small female and probably not yet fully adult, and judging by the relatively intact state of the carcass the shrike seemed to have had problems with feeding on it. Apparently, prey items of this size are no longer optimal for the shrike, not to mention that attacking a stoat can’t be risk-free for such a relatively small bird. However, Granwald also mentioned other recorded observations of apparently successful predation attempts on stoats and weasels Mustela nivalis by great grey shrikes in that area."

Grandwald mentions how there are other accounts of stoats and weasels that were killed by shrikes, but these were probably young females like the confirmed account above. Wikipedia makes note of this: "Occasionally, animals as large as a young stoat (Mustela erminea) are killed and eaten by great grey shrikes. Prey animals may exceptionally be almost as large as the birds themselves, for example chicks of the willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) or a young stoat."

I'll see if more accounts are out there regarding weasels interacting with small predatory birds.