Mustela eversmanii Lesson 1827

Mustela eversmanii Lesson 1827, Manuel de Mammalogie: 144.

Type Locality: "trouvé...entre Orembourg et Bukkara," restricted by Stroganov (1962:338) to "bassein srednego techeniya r. Ileka, v raione vpadenya...r. Bol'shoi Khobdy" [Russia, Orenburg Obl., south of Orenburg, mouth of Bol'shaya Khobda River, a tributary of Ilek River].

Vernacular Names: Steppe Polecat.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. eversmanii Lesson 1827

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. admirata Pocock 1936

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. amurensis Ognev 1930

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. hungarica Éhik 1928

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. larvatus Hodgson 1849

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. michnoi Kastschenko 1910

Subspecies Mustela eversmanii subsp. talassicus Ognev 1928

Distribution: Austria, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Conservation: IUCN – Vulnerable as M. e. amurensis, otherwise Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: The correct spelling of this name is eversmanii (Mazák, 1971). Reviewed by Kostroň (1948), Stroganov (1958, 1962), Heptner et al. (1967), and Anderson (1977). Youngman (1982) and Abramov (1999) placed eversmanii in the subgenus Putorius . Anderson (1977) and Kurtén and Anderson (1980) suggested that nigripes and eversmanii may be conspecific. Pocock (1936 b) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1966) considered eversmanii and putorius conspecific; however, Ognev (1931), Stroganov (1962), and Heptner et al. (1967) recognized them as distinct species.