Mustelidae - Ecology

Ecology

Several members of the family are aquatic to varying degrees, ranging from the semiaquatic mink, to the river otters, and to the highly aquatic sea otter. The sea otter is one of the few nonprimate mammals known to use a tool while foraging. It uses "anvil" stones to crack open the shellfish that form a significant part of its diet. It is a "keystone species", keeping its prey populations in balance so some do not outcompete the others and destroy the kelp in which they live.

The black-footed ferret is entirely dependent on another keystone species, the prairie dog. A family of four ferrets will eat 250 prairie dogs in a year; this requires a stable population of prairie dogs from an area of some 500 acres (2.0 km2).

The mongoose and the meerkat bear a striking resemblance to many mustelids, but belong to a distinctly different suborder - the Feliformia (all those carnivores sharing more recent origins with the Felidae) and not the Caniformia (those sharing more recent origins with the Canidae). Because the mongooses and the mustelids occupy similar ecological niches, convergent evolution has led to some similarity in form and behavior.