Metazoan parasites and food of short-tailed weasels and mink in Newfoundland, Canada

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: Jennings, David H., Threlfall, William, Dodds, Donald G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1982
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Canada; Kerr; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z82-024; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z82-024

Forty short-tailed weasels (Mustela erminea Linnaeus, 1758) and 48 mink (Mustela vison Schreber, 1777) were collected, between January 1978 and February 1979, in three areas of insular Newfoundland and examined for metazoan parasites. Eight genera of parasites were recovered. Two findings constitute new host records. Forty (100%) of the M. erminea and 17 (35%) of the M. vison were infected. The effect of one species, Skrjabingylus nasicola (Leuckart, 1842), on the skull of the weasels was examined, and comments are made on its increase in prevalence with the introduction to insular Newfoundland of the masked shrew (Sorex cinereus Kerr, 1792) in 1958.Gut contents of both M. erminea and M. vison were identified and the percentage occurrence of different food items was calculated. In the case of the former species a marked change in diet, from lagomorphs and passerines to insectivores, was noted when the present (1978–1979) sample was compared with a 1956–1958 sample.