Range Description

The steppe polecat occurs from central and eastern Europe in the west through southern Russia, northern Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to Mongolia and northern and western China. It occurs up to 800 m in Europe and to 2,600 m in central Asia. Wozencraft (2005) lists the following countries of occurrence for this species: Austria, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan; it is also known from Kashmir (Pocock, 1941). According to Mitchell-Jones et al. (1999), in Europe this species is represented by two major populations that are separated by the Carpathians. The western population of which (subspecies Mustela eversmanii hungarica) is found in the Czech Republic, eastern Austria, southern Slovakia, Ukraine south of the Carpathians, Hungary, northern Yugoslavia, and western Romania; the eastern population (nominate subspecies) being restricted to northern Bulgaria, southern Romania, Moldova, Ukraine east and north of the Carpathians, southeastern Poland, southern European Russia, and Kazakhstan (Mitchell-Jones et al. 1999).