There are other things which have documented impacts on ferret/polecat populations but this may be of interest, too, as a added pressure to challenged populations: http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2011/paarungsverhalten_en.html >Using a mathematical model, an international team of researchers led >by Daniel Rankin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of >Zurich, has now demonstrated that aggressive male sexual behavior not >only harms the female, but can also cause entire populations to die >out. The paper recently published in the journal The American >Naturalist... 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.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 7065]