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Winchester
the English setter comes face to face with a defensive ermine.
(Photo by Steve Meyer)
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Just down from the summit, a mountain lake emptied into streams
before the waters converged and fell over the rock face to the valley
below. We had climbed the rocky path along the waterfall earlier
in the morning and made our way above a steep summit wall of shale
rock to find our first view of mountain fields.
There we hunted with three English setters, each of which worked
the country in separate trajectories one wide-ranging and
purposeful, another daring and curious, and a third that stayed
close. That was until we headed back at the end of the day, and
all three setters converged near a rock where the streams met.
I heard a chirping sound and watched as each of the dogs lunged
toward the rock and sprang backward.
"Is it a wounded bird they've got in there?" I asked
Steve, who didn't have my angle of view.
"Do you see a bird?" he asked.
We were 400 yards away, and I couldn't make out anything except
the antics of the dogs. Hugo half-crouched with his head cocked,
Cogswell stood tall with his ears back, and Winchester's nose pointed
toward the base of the rock.
The chirp from the rock grew louder as we approached. Now, it
sounded more like short, high-pitched barks. The dogs continued
to reposition themselves around the rock with full attention. They
didn't spare a look toward us when we finally arrived to see what
they'd found.
Barking little predator
At first, we didn't see anything. Then Steve spotted the darting
head of an ermine. Winchester's nose was about 6 inches from the
rock when the tiny creature struck out of a crevasse, quick as a
snake.
Winchester recoiled, and the ermine missed only due to the shortness
of its strike, but it was back in moments after attempting the same
attack from the underside of the rock where the other two dogs stood
with their heads held back in astonishment.
Their cautious curiosity was like my own what is this
tiny creature? This hissing, barking little predator was surely
no country mouse or squirrel. Rather, there was a scary amount of
quickness and unpredictability in its movement. Ounce for ounce,
it may have been the toughest animal I've ever seen.
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An
ermine peeks out from rocks as it investigates passing hunters
and dogs. (Photo by Steve Meyer)
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We pulled the dogs away from the rock as best we could
for their safety and to give the tough guy his space. Although I
admired the decision of a creature that weighed only a few ounces
to fight off three 50-pound dogs, I didn't want to see who would
win.
My first encounter with an ermine was in a duck blind. Steve
and I first spotted it as we put a few fresh boughs of grass on
the blind before light. It patrolled the area with interest throughout
the morning, and saw us shoot two teal and bring them back to the
blind.
We watched as it made its way toward my pack, where I'd put
the two ducks. It took a few steps, stopped and looked at me, and
then made a few more steps.
"He's going for those ducks," I said. "Right
in front of me."
"Sure enough," Steve said.
I couldn't help but let it try. This cheeky little creature
looked at me one last time before entering my pack. We watched as
it backed out with one of my teal in its mouth. It dragged it backward
only a few feet in front of where I sat, with an eye toward me.
"That's enough!" I said. It looked like it might fight
me for it but let Steve grab the duck away. It ran off, but a few
minutes later, it headed back for the pack.
Type of weasel
One of my favorite stories about a weasel the words "ermine"
and "weasel" are often used interchangeably although the
ermine is a weasel and weasel refers to a least weasel. A friend
hunted moose with her husband along the Koyukuk River. She and her
husband were hunkered in grass near the shoreline when she heard
the sound of a moose getting up, followed by the rake of horns.
"Sounds like a bull moose," she whispered.
At the same moment, a weasel popped up in front of her. She
tried to convince the weasel to leave her alone, making slow and
silent gestures and blowing at it. But it was too curious to be
scared away. Meanwhile, her husband had sighted in on the bull and
fired a shot, taking the moose down. When the pair got up and walked
toward the downed bull, the weasel followed them like a lost dog.
When someone mentions encounters with other hunters in the field,
they usually mean other people. But sometimes I think of ermine
first, and it makes me smile.
The same goes when someone mentions encounters with wildlife.
Bears and wolves instantly come to mind. Perhaps the fact that there
are no articles about attacks on humans by ermine makes them less
worthy of being listed as dangerous. After all, bears are judged
by what they are capable of doing to a human, and ermines are mistaken
for the rodents they kill.
There's no doubt ermine are tough, though. Their confrontational
style and bullet trajectory would make them far scarier than a bear
if they were similarly sized. Bears and ermine are both seen
as dangerously adorable; the difference between the two is not size
as much as character. A bear lumbers along in a sleepy-gentle way
that can make you forget they are a sharp-toothed, razor-clawed
predator capable of running 25 mph.
Ermine never let you forget.
This fall was the first time I'd seen an ermine at such a high
elevation, but true to their vole- and mice-consuming character,
they adapt to a range of habitats throughout Alaska. From the woodshed
to the mountainside and all points between, the ermine may have
one title independent of its weight class. Call it the widest-ranging
mammal predator in the state.
Christine Cunningham of Soldotna is a lifelong Alaskan and avid
hunter. On alternate weeks, she writes about Alaska hunting. Contact
Christine at cunningham@yogaforduckhunters.com
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