. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. Food Habits of Ermine, Mustela erminea, in a Forested Landscape Mark A. Edwards1 and Graham J. Forbes University of New Brunswick, Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 6C2 Canada 'Present address: University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9 Canada forested landscape. Canadian Edwards, Mark A., and Graham J. Forbes. 2003. Food habits of Ermine, Mustela erminea, in Field-Naturalist 117(2): 245-248. Most research pertaining to the di
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. Food Habits of Ermine, Mustela erminea, in a Forested Landscape Mark A. Edwards1 and Graham J. Forbes University of New Brunswick, Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 6C2 Canada 'Present address: University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9 Canada forested landscape. Canadian Edwards, Mark A., and Graham J. Forbes. 2003. Food habits of Ermine, Mustela erminea, in Field-Naturalist 117(2): 245-248. Most research pertaining to the diet of North American weasels has been conducted in agricultural areas and may not be representative of diets in forested regions. Ermine carcasses (N = 155) collected from trappers during a two-week harvest (16-30 November 1996) in forested New Brunswick were analyzed for food habits. The contents of 81 stomachs and 98 gastro- intestinal tracts (N = 179) were considered as separate eating events and used in the calculation of the percent frequency of occurrence. Results suggest that soricids (), arvicolines (), and cricetines () comprised two-thirds of their autumn diet. At a species or genus level, the Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) () and shrews (Sorex spp.) () were shown to have the highest percent occurrence. Squirrels, including the Red Squirrel (Jamiasciurus hudsonicus) and the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamius striatus), comprised of the Ermine's diet; a value higher than has previously been reported. Key Words: Ermine, Mustela erminea, Long-Tailed Weasel, Mustela frenata, food habits, diet analysis, forest landscape. Though a common predator in most forested land- scapes, we were able to locate few studies on weasel {Mustela spp.) food habits in forested landscapes but numerous studies in agricultural landscapes (, review in King 1990). Weasel species such as the Ermine {Mustela erminea) are found in fields and forests throughout the Holar
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