Cuddly Olympics mascot facing life or death struggle in the wild

But it's another story for their real-life counterparts –- living out of sight and under pressure in the Alps as their snow cover slowly melts away due to climate change. Ermines and stoats are the same animal -- mustela erminea -- but with the ermine sporting its white winter coat and the stoat its brown one for summer. And while they might be the face of the Olympics, they're disappearing in Italy's Alps, according to the country's only dedicated ermine researcher. Since 2022, University of Turin...