Wild polecats live in a constantly changing environment. They face
seasonal changes, differences in geology and vegetation, lakes, streams
and rivers, different types of prey, dangerous predators, human
habitation, roads, and thousands of new experiences each day. The number
of interesting, unique odors alone must number in the thousands. Within
the context of all these new experiences, polecats have to find enough
food to stay alive, so they are constantly problem solving, or using
their memory. Each day is a mental challenge to a polecat, one that
taxes their intellect, memory, and experience. Polecats are up to that
task--for millions of years, they have occupied the same niche, expanded
their territory to include most of the northern hemisphere, and have
physically changed very little. They are, as species go, quite
successful. That means they have the brains to do their job.
Ferrets are domesticated polecats, and one of the "side-effects" of
domestication is that domesticates have a smaller brain volume with
a corresponding lowered intelligence. This is commonly seen in dogs,
cats, and nearly all other domesticated animals. Is it seen in ferrets?
That is VERY difficult to say because it is so difficult to identify
the polecat ancestor. Ferrets have skulls that have a narrowing of the
braincase just behind the orbits (orbits house the eyeballs) called the
post-orbital constriction, so they look more like steppe polecats
(Mustela eversmannii) than European polecats (Mustela putorius). The
question is, is the narrowing because of domestication, or because of
ancestry? I do not think ferrets follow the "dumbing-down rule of
domestication" because ferrets were historically crossed back to polecats
to improve hunting instincts, ferrets were used to hunt animals in the
same context as polecats (requiring the same intellectual abilities), and
ferrets were bred to increase curiosity. I suspect most intellectual
differences seen between ferrets and polecats are due to environmental
differences, such as those noticed between groups of humans living in
different economic groups within the same basic culture. Intelligence
(in any animal, even humans) has been strongly linked to early
experience; pet ferrets are raised, shipped, sold, and housed by owners
in extremely limited environments. It is probably such ferrets would
rank lower that polecats nurtured in a diverse and challenging situation.
Ferrets face a far different world than polecats. They memorize their
cages rapidly, learning each object, each corner in short time. They eat
the exact same food, sleep in the exact same bedding, poop in the exact
same latrine, play with the exact same toys, and explore the exact same
limited space day after day after day after day. If a child were raised
in a closet, the government would take the child away and imprison the
parents. Yet ferret owners are happy to place a curious, intelligent
animal in a similar environment for years at a time, with only an hour or
two escape once a day. If a ferret, out of boredom or perhaps displaying
stereotypic behavior, happens to move the litter box, or dig in the food,
the objects are wired to the cage preventing ANY possible interaction;
they are, in short, being penalized for being bored in a boring
environment.
A big difference between ferrets and polecats is novelty--that is, new
objects or situations a ferret might experience for the first time (or
infrequently). This WILL cause short-term stress, which unlike long-term
stress, is good for the body. The ferret might become excited; perhaps
they may dook or bottlebrush their tail. They might become quite intense
in their reactions, seeming frantic or obsessive in investigating the
situation. Novel situations stimulate a ferret's curiosity, memory,
problem-solving skills, and forces the ferret to use sensory organs
(sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) in an effort to sort things out.
Novelty will NOT make a boring environment any less boring, BUT, it WILL
make such a situation more tolerable. Novelty is best applied randomly,
without regard to time or day. Introduce a novel object or situation
one morning, then a day later do it in the evening. Wait a couple days,
and enrich them with novelty in the mid-afternoon. Be random, but be
consistent in introducing novelty.
Some ideas for novelty can include odors, visual stimulation, sounds,
textures, objects, unusual tastes, and the like. Smells may include
perfumes, food and drink odors, edible oils, animal smells, dirt or
vegetation aromas, human sweat, flowers, and aromatic herbs. I buy those
cheap spray bottles, fill them with distilled water, add the scents, and
then spray various objects like balls, paper bags, piles of straw, and
cardboard boxes. Sometimes I seal something aromatic, like fresh potting
soil or a handful of mint leaves, in a box and then cut a single access
hole. I typically will scent the water with stuff from the kitchen, but
I have found a sweaty work shirt, or a well used hammer on a pan is just
as effective. Visual stimulants can include large, tonally graphic
objects (large balls, colored boxes), small, bright objects (bright
balls, large chrome dice), and moving objects (old spoons hanging from
string, sometimes with the bowls filled with treats). I like to play
nature CDs of water, lightning, frogs, and birds, but I also record my
own voice and play those CDs while I am gone. Other auditory stimulants
include crinkle sacks, plastic bags, a pan of pea gravel, and old wind
chimes hung low enough so ferrets can stand up on their back feet and paw
the dangly parts to make noise. Stimulating textures can include various
fake furs, sandpapers, boxes of crinkled paper, and pans of rocks, sands,
and gravels. ANY new object is good, especially if they also have a new
odor or texture. Unusual tastes may not be accepted as food, but that is
not the point. Blend liver to a paste, and smear it on a ball, or rub
some liverwurst on hard plastic toy. The object here is to introduce
NOVELTY, not necessarily find new foods. If the ferret sniffs and tastes
them, that is enough
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4189]
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