Carnivora is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the fifth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species.
The Mustelidae are a diverse family of carnivorous mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, martens, and wolverines. Otherwise known as mustelids, they form the largest family in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora with about 66 to 70 species in nine subfamilies.
Weasels are mammals of the genus Mustela of the family Mustelidae. The genus Mustela includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets, and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender bodies and short legs. The family Mustelidae, or mustelids, is often referred to as the "weasel family". In the UK, the term "weasel" usually refers to the smallest species, the least weasel (M. nivalis), the smallest carnivoran species.
Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera Neogale and Mustela and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": the American mink and the European mink. The extinct sea mink was related to the American mink but was much larger.
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity. All belong to the caniform suborder of carnivoran mammals.
Meles is a genus of badgers containing four living species known as Eurasian badgers, the Japanese badger, Asian badger, Caucasian badger and European badger. In an older categorization, they were seen as a single species with three subspecies. There are also several extinct members of the genus. They are members of the subfamily Melinae of the weasel family, Mustelidae.
The American mink is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human introduction has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink is classed as a least-concern species by the IUCN. The American mink was formerly thought to be the only extant member of the genus Neovison following the extinction of the sea mink (N. macrodon), but recent studies, followed by taxonomic authorities, have reclassified it and the sea mink within the genus Neogale, which also contains a few New World weasel species. The American mink is a carnivore that feeds on rodents, fish, crustaceans, frogs, and birds. In its introduced range in Europe it has been classified as an invasive species linked to declines in European mink, Pyrenean desman, and water vole populations. It is the animal most frequently farmed for its fur, exceeding the silver fox, sable, marten, and skunk in economic importance.
The sea mink is a recently extinct species of mink that lived on the eastern coast of North America around the Gulf of Maine on the New England seaboard. It was most closely related to the American mink, with continuing debate about whether or not the sea mink should be considered a subspecies of the American mink or a species of its own. The main justification for a separate species designation is the size difference between the two minks, but other distinctions have been made, such as its redder fur. The only known remains are bone fragments unearthed in Native American shell middens. Its actual size is speculative, based largely on tooth remains.
Polecat is a common name for several mustelid species in the order Carnivora and subfamilies Ictonychinae and Mustelinae. Polecats do not form a single taxonomic rank. The name is applied to several species with broad similarities to European polecats, such as having a dark mask-like marking across the face.
Ferret-badgers are the six species of the genus Melogale, which is the only genus of the monotypic mustelid subfamily Helictidinae.
Guloninae is a subfamily of the mammal family Mustelidae distributed across Eurasia and the Americas. It includes martens and the fisher, tayra and wolverine. These genera were formerly included within a paraphyletic definition of the mustelid subfamily Mustelinae.
The Colombian weasel, also known as Don Felipe's weasel, is a very rare species of weasel only known with certainty from the departments of Huila and Cauca in Colombia and nearby northern Ecuador. Both its scientific and alternative common name honours the mammalogist Philip "Don Felipe" Hershkovitz.
Stink badgers or false badgers are the species of the genus Mydaus of the skunk family of carnivorans, the Mephitidae. They resemble the better-known members of the family Mustelidae also termed 'badgers'. There are only two extant species – the Palawan stink badger or pantot, and the Sunda stink badger or teledu. They live west of the Wallace Line; the Sunda species on islands of the Greater Sunda Islands, being Sumatra, Java, and Borneo; in Borneo the badger is found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Palawan species lives in the Philippine island of Palawan as well as the islands surrounding it.
Interdigital webbing is the presence of membranes of skin between the digits. Normally in mammals, webbing is present in the embryo but resorbed later in development, but in various mammal species it occasionally persists in adulthood. In humans, it can be found in those suffering from LEOPARD syndrome and from Aarskog–Scott syndrome.
Staphylococcus delphini is a Gram-positive, coagulase-positive member of the bacterial genus Staphylococcus consisting of single, paired, and clustered cocci. Strains of this species were originally isolated from aquarium-raised dolphins suffering from skin lesions.
Ictonychinae is a subfamily of the mammal family Mustelidae found mainly in the Neotropics and Africa, with one Eurasian member. It includes the grisons, Patagonian weasel, striped polecats, African striped weasel, and marbled polecat. These genera were formerly included within a paraphyletic definition of the mustelid subfamily Mustelinae.
Neogale is a genus of mustelid native to the Americas, ranging from Alaska south to Bolivia. Members of this genus are known as New World weasels.
