Talk:Striped polecat

"Due to their small stomachs, they must eat often" this has to have causality backwards, doesn't it? Because they eat often, they don't need large stomachs. If eating often due to their small stomachs were a problem, they would have evolved larger stomachs Demigord (talk) 20:11, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

Not exactly. Because of opportunity cost, the causality of an evolutionary adaptation runs both ways. While it could be that they happened to eat small amounts, often, because of pressures unrelated to their stomachs, and so natural selection favored small stomachs in favor of wasting energy on unnecessarily large ones, or it could be that there was selective pressure against having a large stomach, either merely because it was an unnecessary waste of energy and weight to carry the little bit of extra, or something more unique to the stomach, such as the increased risk of a particular bacteria posing a larger risk to the stomach, a predisposition to stomach cancer that is correlated with the number of cells in the stomach, etc., and then, as a result of the fact that they evolved to have those small stomachs, they would be forced to eat frequently as a trade-off. Whichever it is, I'm sure there are aspects of both. 2600:8801:1C00:DDD0:25D3:B15:1F45:EC1E (talk) 11:19, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Striped polecat/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Olmagon (talk · contribs) 22:06, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: Chiswick Chap (talk · contribs) 12:41, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

Comments

• Much of the wording could be tightened up and simplified. This would increase readability and reduce the length. e.g. Young polecats often have a specific set of calls and signals, used in adolescence, could be "Adolescent polecats have a specific set of calls," (unless you have evidence for non-auditory signals, in which case please give an example; I note that [58] talks of "submissive postures"). Or again is referred to by a wide range of vernacular names could be "has many vernacular names". I could easily point to a dozen other instances. Please go through the text imagining you are a new reader with limited English or limited time, and try simplifying the writing.

Trimmed down several bits, if there's still more that is unnecessary do tell me. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:48, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• For example The first assessment done by the IUCN of the striped polecat was completed in 1996, which listed it as Least Concern, and the same listing was given in subsequent assessments done in 2008 and 2015. Being very widespread across Africa and present in multiple protected areas, the organization concluded that this species faces no major threats.[1] could be "The IUCN rated the species as Least Concern in 1996, 2008, and 2015, as it is widespread across Africa including in protected areas." Less than half as long, and simpler for readers.

Changed to that. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:48, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• The lead is rather long; perhaps it'll be shorter after the above tightening of wording, but it may need rather more radical pruning to focus on the essential message (what in a nutshell is this article about?). If you're having trouble with this, just ask and I'll propose a draft.

Trimmed down to just three paragraphs from the previous four now. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:49, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Young which have begun eating solid food would suckle less, and by an age of eight weeks they were weaned. - something wrong with the tenses here. Try "... suckle less, ... are weaned."

Done. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:49, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• The word "also" is overused, try a search and you'll be able to cut most of them.

• Ditto for "will".

• have been reported to, have been known to are typical redundant phrases.

Trimmed these phrases and the two words mentioned above. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:50, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• it will take ... will spray ...: "it takes ... sprays" is shorter and clearer.

Done. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:50, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• "is a small mammal". This term is mostly used for animals no bigger than mice; they are bigger than predators such as least weasel, and much bigger than shrews, too.

Removed it. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:50, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• 'Evolution': it'd be helpful to add Lyncodontini to the cladogram, with an example of the species it contains, and to root that tree in Mustelidae.

All species in the cladogram belong to Ictonychinae so that seems a reasonable place to root it, Lyncodontini is here represented by one species (greater grison, note that Ictonychinae and Ictonychini are different clades, with the latter being a member of the former). Olmagon (talk · contribs) 15:59, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Suggest you abbreviate "million years ago" to "mya" after the first instance, and wikilink it.

Discussed this with some people on the Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology Discord server who stated they usually only do this if the term is used numerous times throughout the page and that three uses isn't excessive. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 15:57, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Roadkill is mentioned both in 'Mortality and disease' and in 'Conservation'. Please reduce the duplication. Much of that discussion in the first section isn't about mortality or disease anyway but about how the corpses tend to hang about: that topic is probably irrelevant for this article.

Roadkill stuff now all in the first section. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 16:00, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• 'Predatory competition' is an odd heading; 'Competition' would be more usual, and is sufficient. The text too could be condensed, with benefit.

Had it changed to Competitors after seeing how it's done on the tiger page. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 01:22, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Copyvio check: cv is very unlikely.

Images

• The images are relevant and of suitable quality.

• All the images are on Commons and plausibly licensed.

• Consider adding a small image (say, 70px) to each species named in the cladogram.

On FA pages that do this (such as tiger and Nasutoceratops) the images used show just the species with no background. Such images aren't available on Commons for the species in this cladogram and at such a small size I don't think images with a background clearly portray the animal because then you'll have to squint to distinguish a dark-coloured weasel from a dark bit of wood it's standing on. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 16:05, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

@Olmagon: If you can give me an illustration of each species that encompasses the whole animal I can edit transparent versions for you. -- Reconrabbit 16:03, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

• Suggest you make a cropped copy of the Thomas Lord Busby image as there's a lot of deadspace. There's a crop tool on Commons for this.

Done. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:51, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Ditto for the three skull images. (Do we really need three? Seems a bit unusual, if not overkill. One is probably sufficient.)

Cropped the one I retained. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 01:22, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Not sure that there's any value in the taxidermy specimen in 'Evolution', nor does it add anything to that section.

Changed it to a skeleton mount, seems better fitting in the section that does cover bone remains. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:52, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Not sure the roadkill image adds anything much either; we could add similar images to thousands of mammal and bird articles without adding any value.

In most species I'd agree but this page in particular does put emphasis on how roadkill is the primary cause of death for this species. I did select the least gory one I could find for this purpose. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 00:54, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• Captions could be terser, like the text. e.g. with a caption referring to it as a 'zorilla' could be "captioned 'zorilla'".

Shortened most of what I could. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 01:01, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

• The name "striped polecat" occurs in 11 captions. It isn't needed in any of them (the article's title is sufficient).

Removed them. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 01:00, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

Sources

• The sources used are relevant and of suitable quality. There is quite heavy reliance on [2] (Larivière 2002) but this is supplemented by many others.

• Spot-checks: [7] ok, [27] ok page nos are wrong (Hippos!), [44] ok, [58] ok, [70] ok.

Not sure what you mean about [27] since that paper is about antelopes and carnivorans, doesn't seem to involve hippos. Olmagon (talk · contribs) 01:02, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

It is. I followed a link, somehow found the wrong historic document. May have been a glitch in the archive actually.

Summary

• The article covers the ground well, and is reliably sourced. The main issue is just a bit of copy-editing for conciseness. Then this'll be a fine GA. Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:58, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

  Almost there... Chiswick Chap (talk) 02:21, 7 September 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.