Editing Stoat (section)

==Distribution and habitat==
The stoat has a [[circumboreal]] range throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The stoat in Europe is found as far south as 41ºN in Portugal, and inhabits most islands with the exception of Iceland, [[Svalbard]], the [[Mediterranean]] islands and some small [[North Atlantic]] islands. In Japan, it is present in central mountains (northern and central [[Japanese Alps]]) to northern part of [[Honshu]] (primarily above 1,200 m) and Hokkaido. Its vertical range is from sea level to {{cvt|3000|m}}.<ref name=iucn/> In North America, it is found throughout [[Alaska]] and western [[Yukon]] to most of [[Northern Canada|Arctic Canada]] east to [[Greenland]]. Throughout the rest of North America, as well as parts of [[Nunavut]], including [[Baffin Island]] and some islands in southeast Alaska, it is replaced by ''[[Mustela richardsonii|M. richardsonii]]''.<ref name=Colella_al2021/>

===Introduction to New Zealand===
{{main|Stoat in New Zealand}}
Stoats were introduced into [[New Zealand]] during the late 19th century to control rabbits and hares, but are now a major threat to native bird populations. The introduction of stoats was opposed by scientists in New Zealand and Britain, including the New Zealand ornithologist [[Walter Buller]]. The warnings were ignored and stoats began to be introduced from Britain in the 1880s, resulting in a noticeable decline in bird populations within six years.<ref>{{cite book |last=King |first=Carolyn |title=Immigrant Killers |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Auckland, NZ |year=1984 |isbn=0-19-558121-0 }}</ref> Stoats are a serious threat to ground- and hole-nesting birds, since the latter have very few means of escaping predation. The highest rates of stoat predation occur after seasonal gluts in southern [[beechmast]] (beechnuts), which enable the reproduction of rodents on which stoats also feed, enabling stoats to increase their own numbers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Purdey |first1=D. C. |first2=C. M. |last2=King |first3=B. |last3=Lawrence |year=2004 |title=Age structure, dispersion and diet of a population of stoats (''Mustela erminea'') in southern Fiordland during the decline phase of the beechmast cycle |journal=New Zealand Journal of Zoology |publisher=The Royal Society of New Zealand |volume=31 |pages=205–225 |url=http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/230/1/content.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/230/1/content.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2009-11-30 |doi=10.1080/03014223.2004.9518373 |issue=3 |s2cid=55061896 |doi-access=free }}</ref> For instance, the endangered [[South Island takahē]]'s wild population dropped by a third between 2006 and 2007, after a stoat plague triggered by the 2005–06 [[mast (botany)|mast]] wiped out more than half the takahē in untrapped areas.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/298858 |title=Stoats decimating takahe in Fiordland |date=4 March 2008 |work=stuff.co.nz |access-date=23 April 2011 |archive-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024000517/http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/298858 |url-status=live }}</ref>