| Bleasels can be found hiding in the tallest trees. They have long, slender bodies, and padded feet that are adapted both for running across flat surfaces, and for climbing trees. The Bleasels are about four feet long, and their tails are usually as long as their bodies. They weight between 45 and 50 lbs, on the average. Young Bleasels undergo a growt spurt into full adulthood during the second springtime of their lives.
Bleasels are part of the weasel family, but they generally steer clear of their carnivorous relatives. Bleasels are photosynthetic vegetarians; in addition to getting necessary vitamins and minerals from the leaves and the grass that they eat, their skin cells have an element that is sensitive to the sun, and allows them to convert the sun into energy. While they need both to survive, they are able to store sun energy, and they have been known to last arctic winters after reverse-migrating from the four-month summer in the savannah.
Bleasels are unique in that their eggs are mobile. The tail is located outside the egg, and is the first thing to grow as a baby bleasel develops. The base of the egg is hardier than the rest, and when a Bleasel-egg senses danger and the parents are not nearby, they can hop short distances, using the tail as a crutch of sorts.
Bleasels are extremely attracted to shiny objects, and hunters and enemies sometimes use tinfoil to catch them. Sometimes they will leave traps covered with clumps of tinsel or old broken forks and spoons. When bleasels come to investigate, they fall into the traps. Becase of their love of all things shiny, they are often used as treasure rods. In the North, Bleasels are kept as pets and helpers in the gold rush territories. Bleasels spot the tiniest sparkles of gold sand, and can lead their owners to auspicious plots of riverside land.
Possibly because of their love for shiny things, possibly out of self-preservation, adult Bleasels grow reflective stripes around their chests and their upper paws. At a certain angle, the strips can reflect light and temporarily blind any night hunters with their own flashlights or torches.
While Bleasels can develop pet-owner relationships, they lack the absolute loyalty and naive trust that characterize some other pets. They are, essentally, self-sufficient, extremely intelligent, and very aware of turning the situation to their advantage. While they are bonded to their owners, they treat their owners' interests as their own, and will find a way to get whatever their owner wants, however, they may change their owners seemingly at random, following the intuition that seems puzzling to everyone else. Occasionally, they will return to previous owners just as spontaneously.
Bleasels are featured in a popular children's rhyme.
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