Mustelinae

Mustelinae is a subfamily of family Mustelidae, including weasels, ferrets, and minks.
It was formerly defined in a paraphyletic manner to also include wolverines, martens, and many other mustelids, to the exclusion of the otters.

Extant species of Mustelinae

Subfamily Mustelinae

Image	Genus	Living species
	Mustela Linnaeus, 1758	Mountain weasel, Mustela altaica Stoat or ermine, Mustela erminea Steppe polecat, Mustela eversmannii Domestic ferret, Mustela furo Haida ermine, Mustela haidarum Japanese weasel, Mustela itatsi Yellow-bellied weasel, Mustela kathiah European mink, Mustela lutreola Indonesian mountain weasel, Mustela lutreolina Mustela mopbie Black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes Least weasel, Mustela nivalis Malayan weasel, Mustela nudipes European polecat, Mustela putorius American ermine, Mustela richardsonii Siberian weasel, Mustela sibirica Back-striped weasel, Mustela strigidorsa
	Neogale Gray, 1865	Amazon weasel, Neogale africana Colombian weasel, Neogale felipei Long-tailed weasel, Neogale frenata American mink, Neogale vison

The sea mink is a recently extinct species from the 19th century that was native to the Maritime Provinces of Canada and New England in the United States.

Importance for humans

The furs of several members of this subfamily, including weasel, ermine, mink, and polecat, are used in fashion.
Domestic ferrets are fairly common pets.

Ferret model of COVID-19

can infect both the European mink and the American mink. Ferrets are used to study COVID-19. Ferrets get some of the same symptoms as humans, but they get less sick than farmed mink. Ferrets are a fairly uncommon animal to use as a model, but mice were not an easy model of COVID-19 because mice lack the ACE2 gene.