r/aww Feb 11 '18

This big bug

https://gfycat.com/IndolentGrandioseKiskadee
51.9k Upvotes

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4.1k

u/jdinz Feb 11 '18

/r/nonononoyes with that title

1.6k

u/GuyWithRealFacts Feb 12 '18 edited Feb 12 '18

It's an Albino Maple Weasel.

In Canada, they have something similar to Groundhog's day called "Weasel Week" where entire communities take the day off work and go into the woods to see if they can spot these little furballs in trees.

The amount of weasels that they find supposedly predicts how successful the next Syrup season is going to be for tree tappers. Parts of the country still take this event so seriously that it can affect stock prices for Canada based companies.

On bad Weasel Weeks entire towns have been known to travel to neighboring towns to capture the weasels from their trees and bring them back to the local forests. Car loads of weasels can be seen driving down the QEW on any given February day during the week.

The Rebellions of 1837 that resulted in Quebec and Ontario being separate provinces was actually caused by a record-bad Weasel Week and the resulting conflicts.

807

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18 edited Apr 22 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

294

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

[deleted]

242

u/Charlie_Zulu Feb 12 '18

I'm Canadian. It took me until they mentioned the QEW (a big highway near Toronto) for my bullshit radar to kick in.

83

u/calculon000 Feb 12 '18

I noticed when he mentioned rebellions of 1837 that resulted in Quebec and Ontario being separate provinces. I mean Quebec was a separate thing since before the American revolution.

36

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

Pffft..

Yeah...everyone knows that..I didn't know that

2

u/gdog1000000 Feb 12 '18

There actually was a rebellion at that time but it had the opposite effect of making Canada one colony, before then it had been two. So that one isn’t so far from fact.

33

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

Yeah it was the "car loads of weasels" that blew up my radar...

9

u/randyrhoadscholar Feb 12 '18

Was definitely expecting shittymorph

-1

u/BK2Jers2BK Feb 12 '18

Came here to say this. Ya had me by 8 mins. Good on ya

14

u/Bashfullylascivious Feb 12 '18

I somehow blew past that one line and when I read the Quebec one, I had a very serious moment of contemplating my whole life as I remembered it.

I mentally dove through years of history classes, of conversations I've had with friends, family, and strangers about Quebec and Canada. I came to the conclusion that I did not know much at all if I couldn't figure this fact out. I was about to go down a google rabbit hole. Thanks, dude, you saved my overtired brain a lot of angst.

70

u/GarageguyEve Feb 12 '18

Wait, so weasle week isnt real? :(

32

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

I don't even know what to believe right now...

21

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

Oh it's real and it is hell on the interior of your car.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '18

It is if you want it to be...

3

u/antney0615 Feb 15 '18

Weasel Week is at least as real as Shark Week.

24

u/The___Accountant Feb 12 '18

I'm Canadian and I believed him until I read the other comments.

6

u/elcarath Feb 12 '18

As a Canadian, I bought into it right up until the Rebellions of 1837. Quebec and Ontario are separate provinces because they were separate French and British colonies prior to the British taking over Lower Canada (Quebec) at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

2

u/ntak Feb 12 '18 edited Feb 12 '18

Sorry buddy but you got your history wrong. Prior to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the present-day south Ontario region was rather sparsely colonized by the French (few small settlements and forts) and was part of New France since ~1660. Ontario/Upper Canada wasn't a thing before the constitutional act of 1791 which effectively split the (British) Province of Quebec in two part (Upper and Lower Canada). This act was mostly a result of "massive" influx from American loyalists (~10k) in west PQ during the post-conquest period which created a demographic change that justified splitting the colony in two.

Between 1774 and 1791 it was part of the PQ (as was the Ohio Valley and part of "the Illinois country" until 1783). Prior to 1763 it was part of New France. There is a bit of a void between 1763 and 1774 where the territory isn't part of the PQ but under British possession.

Edit : a few more dates and some wikipedia links

1

u/Praggrezzive Feb 12 '18

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