Weasel Funerals

[rynner2]

Jonny Beardsall, writing in Country Diary in the Telegraph (Saturday), said:

"He is the only person I know who has witnessed a weasel's funeral - he was on a track in a wood when two weasels walked past on their hind legs bearing the stiff corpse of another with other family members following on behind."

I have heard of a Rook's Parliament before, but a Weasel's Funeral is a new one on me! Anyone have any more on this? Was it really a funeral, or was the corpse a slain rival, destined for the victors' dining table, perhaps?

Clearly, strange things go on in the Wild Wood!

(Not unknown animals, but weird behaviour, so I thought this was the appropriate thread.)

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe he meant 'Wurzel's funeral'

"I am a zoider drinker..."

 

[rynner2]

Ah! That takes me back! I did see the legendary Adge Cutler perform in Salcombe in the 70s....

However, right now I want know about weasels, and other creatures with strange group behaviour. What does this tell us about human intelligence and society? Many creatures do show mourning behaviour when one of their number dies - and the way elephants behave at Elephant Graveyards is very thought provoking...

[PS on Adge Cutler - there is a lot of stuff on the www about AC and the Wurzels: Adge died in May 74, so the gig I recall was probably post-Adge... As I write, I'm listening to the Wurzels doing "Combine Harvester": click

http://www.wallies.fsnet.co.uk/wurzels/Page_1x.html

!!!]

 

[Breakfastologist]

There are some similarly bizarre or seemingly anthropomorphic behaviours recorded on the part of groups of cats, I seem to recall. I had never heard of a weasel funeral, mind and it does sound more than a little questionable to me.

 

[rynner2]

Tell me more about the cats (or the rooks, for that matter).

Seems to me these things have important lessons to teach, especially to those who claim that this or that level of thinking requires a minimum brain size of..., when clearly these little critturs are well below the limit. Some birds, especially, ought to use most of their brainpower on sharp eyesight and the ability to fly, and yet still seem remarkably intelligent. (I'm excluding domestic fowl here, which were not bred for their brains!)

 

[Ioethe]

I recall a rather gruesome piece of footage on The Living Planet (I think) with a group of elephants "waltzing" with a dead baby elephant in an attempt to get it breathing again. They wouldn't leave the body behind but the footage stopped before anything final was done with it.

I have a book called "Cat's Manners and Mysteries" by a woman called Nina Egerton which touches briefly on cat funerals, where a mother cat takes away and buries each of her drowned kittens...

 

[rynner2]

This thread has triggered the most amazing/amusing synchronicity.

1. I posted on Weasels (because of something I read in the paper)

2. Lard joked about Wurzels.

3. Having seen the group in the 70s, I did a websearch , and I found several Wurzel sites, including one which played one of their biggest hits, "I've got a brand new Combine Harvester" (which was a take-off of the pop song, "I've got a brand new pair of roller-skates" !!)

4. Today the mininster for culture made some disparaging remarks about folk music, and mentioned the Wurzels (therebye proving that, like most politicians, he doesn't know what he's talking about)! And the Beeb, in reporting it, naturally played "...Combine harvester"!

That was a pretty good syn in my book, because I probably haven't even thought about the Wurzels for years, and they turn up twice in 24 hours.

(There was another syn yesterday - see the "Ginger" thread. The Segway syn was more coincident in time, but then it's breaking news...)

Interesting times.

 

[JurekB]

I once witnessed something that could almost be described as a Rooks parliment. Walking my dog round a large playing field I could see and hear loads of birds in one part of the field. As I got closer I could see there was one bird on the ground which was being attacked by all the others.
I don't think that this was a territorial thing as there were all different breeds involved in terrorising this one poor bird. I felt quite sorry for it but to induce this much wrath it must have done something pretty bad.:eek!!!!:

 

[Anonymous]

It's Totally Unconfirmable Reference Time! Isn't there a species of monkey which has been 'reliably' seen to hold something similar to funerals?

There's also a old Brit folk tale normally referred to as 'King of the Cats' which has the cat funeral taking place plus a fantastic spooky ending. But I digress.