Weasel war dance
 |
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. (December 2008) |
The weasel war dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited ferrets and weasels. In wild animals, it is speculated that this dance is used to confuse or disorient prey[1]. In domestic animals, the war dance usually follows play or the successful capture of a toy or a stolen object. It consists of a frenzied series of sideways and backwards hops, often accompanied by an arched back, dooking or hissing noises, and a frizzy tail. Ferrets are notoriously clumsy in their surroundings during their dance and will often bump into or fall over objects and furniture. Although the weasel war dance may make a ferret appear frightened or angry, they are often just excited and are usually harmless to humans. This term is analogous to binky in rabbits and popcorning in guinea pigs. A similar playful looking behaviour is shown by house cats that has just caught a prey. In fact people with pet cats at home will not find this behaviour of weasels strange at all.
The term was popularized by (among others) Scott Adams in the Dilbert comic strip.
See also
References
External links
.png){kind=small} | This article about a carnivoran is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |