Naming
The specific epithet refers to Arctic explorer and naturalist John Richardson.About 13 subspecies are known:Distribution
The species is found throughout most of North America aside from most of Alaska, eastern Yukon, most of Arctic Canada, and Greenland, where it is replaced by "M. erminea". It reaches the northern extent of its range in Baffin Island and a portion of eastern mainland Nunavut and ranges from here to cover almost all of western North America south to northern New Mexico, and eastern North America south to northern Virginia. It is absent from most of the Southeastern United States and the Great Plains.Behavior
In North America, where the ecological niche for rat- and rabbit-sized prey is taken by the larger long-tailed weasel, the American ermine preys on mice, voles, shrews, and young cottontails.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
