In 1939, the German zoologist Konrad Herter taught a weasel to read.
Well, taught a weasel to distinguish the shapes "W" and "L", and from there worked steadily up to having it distinguish boxes with WURM and LEER ("empty") on it, which it managed about 80% of the time.
this footnote brought to you by the excellent *Natural History of Weasels and Stoats* (OUP 2007), which begins "There is something enormously satisfactory about a weasel. It has the perfection, grace, and efficiency of a well-designed tool in the hands of an expert..." and has a section complaining about the unreasonable biases of children's woodland stories.
my foray into the wonderful world of weasels comes from having had the opportunity to photograph some on Wednesday: I am now absolutely in agreement with "something enormously satisfactory"
my foray into the wonderful world of weasels comes from having had the opportunity to photograph some on Wednesday: I am now absolutely in agreement with "something enormously satisfactory"