Dear Ferret Folks-
 
Yesterday Lisette reasonably asked if domesticated ferrets can survive
in the wild.  I know that this is not what people want to hear, but yes,
ferrets can and do live in the wild in New Zealand.  I saw one myself
there on my honeymoon.  We got a good long look at it, it was
unquestionably a ferret.  I don't know if they are living wild on the
north island, but they are on the south island where we were.  If they
can live in the wild there, I don't see why they can't naturalize in other
places like California or Hawaii.
 
This emotion stirred by this debate has always been puzzling to me.
People get very worked upabout the possibility of ferrets surviving in the
wild, just suggest that it is possible and people will slap you down.  Of
course it is possible!  Ferrets have only been domesticated for a very
short period of time in the grand scheme of things, in their bones they
carry the memory of how to be wild animals.  So do we.  If the bombs flew
tomorrow and civilization crumbled, I think that an awful lot of us
humans would manage to 'survive in the wild.'  It is our nature, and it
is nature's way.
 
I think that a better question is, "can naturalized ferrets do ecological
damage?" I don't know the answer to that one, although it wouldn't
surprise me to learn that they could.  Foreign plant and animal
introductions have done grevious damage to the sheltered island ecologies
of New Zealand and Hawaii.  Just because we love ferrets doesn't mean that
they can't possibly cause a problem.
 
We can't ask a full-blooded California Indian about the damage done there
by foreign introductions, the last one died about 100 years ago, driven to
extinction like the giant flightless Moa of New Zealand.  Both extinctions
are attributable to the actions of Homo Sapiens, I might add, the most
deadly predator in the history of the world.  It's not our savagery that
sets us apart, it's our recklessness, our wanton disregard.
 
I do not argue that the powers that be in California, Hawaii, and New
Zealand have reason for concern when it comes to ferrets.  The weight
and evidence of history suggests that it is not an entirely misplaced
concern. I  just wish  that they were one HELL of a lot more concerned
about the damage being done right now by ever-growing numbers of human
beings!
 
Alexandra in Massachusetts,
Loving her ferrets, but mourning the Stellars Sea Cow, the Great Auk, the
Dodo, the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parakeet, the Heath Hen, the
Quagga, the Tasmanian Wolf, The Cape Lion, The Moa, the Moa Hawk, and
the California Indian.
[Posted in FML issue 3740]