http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2355285/Prickly-problem-uncovered

>The humble hedgehog has been outed as public conservation enemy No 1
>near the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.
>
>More than half of the 5029 predators caught over four years, across
>20,000 hectares of the Tasman riverbed, were hedgehogs.
>
>"They're very underrated," said Twizel biodiversity programme manager
>Dean Nelson, of the Department of Conservation.
...
>The surprisingly adaptable creatures, introduced to New Zealand in the
>late 19th century, were found as high as 1000 metres above sea- level.
>
>Nelson said the prickly creatures ate birds eggs but it was not known
>whether they carried off young birds.
>
>They also ate weta, beetles, grasshoppers and even lizards.
...
>A two-and-a-half year study by Landcare Research, published in 2003,
>bemoaned the fact that stoats, ferrets and possums got all the
>attention as predators.
>
>"They are like the bad guys in balaclavas during a bank heist,"
>Landcare Research scientist Dr Chris Jones said at the time.
>
>"Meanwhile, hedgehogs are the guys in the background, quietly opening
>the safe."
...
>About 1100 traps were laid from Whale Stream up to, and including,
>part of the national park. Hedgehogs and stoats were 75 per cent of
>the trapped predators.
>
>Wild cats featured more prominently than possums or ferrets.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6310]