Small Animal Mounts
by Reimond Grignon
Pine Martens
Our small museum holds a good variety of fur bearing animals like these beautiful award winning pine martens that I mounted for my museum.
I got the idea for this mount while watching watching red squirrels scamper over my fathers tools as a child.
Minks
The mink is found all over Maine and spends almost all of its time in or near the edges of lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. They usually roam alone along the shorelines.
They travel almost constantly looking for food which consists of almost anything they can catch. They are fond of frogs, muskrats, fish, crayfish, mice, small birds, eggs, and even insects like grasshoppers.
They scavenge constantly and will even eat snakes and salamanders. They are very fond of diving beetles which have been known to make up to 39 percent of a minks diet.
The mink is a small medium sized member of the weasel family. They have
short legs and a long slender agile body. An average male mink will have
a total length of 15 to 25 inches long. The female mink is smaller averaging
3/4 the size of the male. These animals make beautiful mounts as shown
in the pictures. The top picture is of two minks courting and the picture
on the left is a large male mink.
Weasels
The short tailed weasel is located everywhere in Maine. This little animal
has started many a young boys career in trapping, usually being the first
animal to be caught that had any fur market value. They can be found anywhere
that there is an old stonewall and forest nearby. Short tailed weasels
are not very big, measuring only between 10 and 14 inches in total length.
They are very slender and the animal can go through any hole that its
head will fit into.
They love mice and will kill mice just for the fun of killing. They will kill much more than they are capable of eating at one time, completely destroying a mouse nest if found. Although weasels have not been know to harm humans they are completely unafraid of man. If weasels were as big as bears, man wouldn't stand a chance in the woods.
In the summertime weasels are brown on the tops of their heads, on their
sides, and backs
and have brown tails with black tips. Their chins, throats,
and bellies are a creamy white as shown in the above photo of this mount.
In the fall the weasels fur coat starts turning more and more white as the brown hairs are replaced by new white ones growing in. The photo on your right shows a mounted weasel which is beginning to turn white as the season advances.
In
the winter time, weasels will turn completely white except for the black
tip of its tail. At this time the short tailed weasel is now known as
an Ermine.
At one time the kings ropes in Europe were made from many ermine pelts sewn together. Even as late as the 1800's the pelt of the ermine was highly prized. Today the pelt of the weasel is practically worthless. What few weasel pelts that come to market are usually brought in by kids who have just started trapping.
Squirrels
Who has not seen a gray squirrel? These animals are found in almost any park in the Northeastern part of the United States. The animals get acclimated to humans in these parks and become quite friendly.
In the wild, gray squirrels are very wary and hide at the approach of humans. They will move around to the backside of the tree or limb they are on hoping to remain hidden. Sometimes if you look close you will see just their tail tip hanging down and maybe moving in the breeze. They forget that there tails are there. This beautiful mount has eyes with the perfect squirrel expression.
Below is a Red Squirrel mount.
This is the most popular squirrel in Maine. They are everywhere in the woods of Maine, all unattended cabins, camps and houses.......
This is mount I did for my museum room. Hundreds of kids have found and seen him!
