Mustela

Mustela is an order of animals according to the theory of evolution. In English some of these animals are given the word or affix "weasel" in their names, but not all of them. The others are given the ferret, mink, and polecat suffixes. It is important to remember that our choice of words dictates are understanding of them. This does not necessarily denote evolutionary distinction from one another: while ferrets, polecats, and minks in mustela are closely related, they are not too distantly related from weasels. Many weasels are far more distantly related to each other, but they are still counted as weasels. There are animals in other subfamilies of Mustelidae which are more distantly related, but are still called weasels and polecats. Coloration may be a factor in choosing these suffixes. Here's a list of surviving Mustela species:


 * Mustela africana (from South America)
 * Mustela altaica
 * Mustela erminea
 * Mustela eversmannii
 * Mustela felipei
 * Mustela frenata
 * Mustela itatsi
 * Mustela kathiah
 * Mustela lutreola
 * Mustela lutreolina
 * Mustela nigripes
 * Mustela nivalis
 * Mustela nudipes
 * Mustela putorius
 * Mustela (putorius) furo
 * Mustela sibirica
 * Mustela strigidorsa
 * Mustela subpalmata