375851

While still hunting through the forest I observed a dark brown animal on the forest floor at approximately 30 yards. The animal had a weasel type body and head, and fuzzy fur. It was a dark brown almost black color over the entire body, without darker coloration on the legs or tail, and orange hairs intermingled around the ears and moreso on the chest, but not a solid patch of orange. The animal climbed onto a boulder where I observed it through 10x binoculars, and I later (after it disappeared) went up to the boulder to better gauge the size of the animal. It was in the range of 30-32 inches long from nose to butt, with a thick tail half again as long. It's back was about 14 inches high with half it's height coming from its legs. I would have first estimated the animal's weight near 30 pounds, but the hair may have been deceiving. The animal walked without the bouncy/rocky motion of a weasel. It was not observed climbing any trees but stayed on the forest floor. The observation lasted less than five minutes.