Japanese weasel
Amazing fact
Japanese weasels store food for later when it is plentiful.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Japanese weasels store food for later when it is plentiful.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Japanese weasel
- Scientific name
- Mustela itatsi
- Japanese name
- ニホンイタチ
- Group
- Land mammals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Mustelidae
- Genus
- Mustela
A weasel native to Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and nearby islands, it lives on the plains and in mountain areas.
Its body is golden yellow, with a dark brown patch running from the forehead to the nose.
It hunts mostly along rivers and eats frogs, mice, birds, insects, fish and more.
How the Japanese weasel lives
It is active both by day and at night. It chases prey by running through tunnels, climbing trees or swimming. Females use holes in the ground and similar places as nests. In winter, it spends much of its time chasing small rodents through tunnels beneath the snow.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web国立環境研究所 侵入生物DBBasic data
- Size
- Head and body length: males 27–37 cm, females 16–25 cm
- Weight
- males 290–650 g, females 115–175 g
- Diet
- Frogs, rodents, birds, insects, crustaceans and fish
- Range
- Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and surrounding islands
Where the Japanese weasel has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ニホンイタチ
- 简体中文
- 日本鼬
- 繁體中文
- 日本鼬
- 한국어
- 일본족제비
- Español
- Comadreja japonesa
- Français
- Itatsi
- Deutsch
- Japan-Wiesel
- Português (Brasil)
- Doninha-japonesa
- Italiano
- Donnola giapponese
- العربية
- ابن عرس ياباني
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Cerpelai jepang
- Русский
- Итатси
- Türkçe
- Japon Sansarı
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB — ニホンイタチChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Mustela itatsiChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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