Chris Lewis writes:
 
>I've not heard the above before about an african ferret species.  It
>seems unlikely because of how readily ferrets can interbreed with
>Mustela Furo.
 
(I think you mean Mustela putorius.) There are three polecat species in
Africa, so it's not impossible, but the three in Eurasia (and the
American) certainly looks like they are closer relatives. (When the
results from the chromosome comparision study is out I'll let you know.)
 
[Yes, I meant Mustela Putorious.  I made that goof at least twice.  Oops.]
 
>In a population of animals, without man's
>interference, albinism fades out to occasional births.  Like in humans,
>tigers, grizzly bears etc.  Though I know that the Swedes are rather
>confused about this...  (Sorry Urban ;-)
 
Some are, yes. But it could've been worse: 120 years ago, the
Swedish name for ferret was "skunk", which today means exactly
what it means in English. The writer of that old biology book
also said that their origin was unclear; That most of them are
light coloured, but that there were some almost looking like
polecats; He was uncertain about their relationship with
polecats, but said that they by Aristotle and Pliny were clearly
considered separate from polecats, and had been since then.
 
Present day European biologists have no trouble designating them
either a separate species or a sub-species, and not just
domestic polecats:
 
_Daggdjur och Faglar_ (Mammals and Birds), 1988, by Bjorn
Ursing, with the Swedish subtitle "Systematisk oversikt"
(Systematic overview), says:
   "Ferret, Mustela furo, domestic form descended from Central Asian
polecats."
 
Another book, _Daggdjur, grodjur och kraldjur_ (Mammals,
amphibians and reptiles), 1981, by Kai Curry-Lindahl, says:
   "Domestic since 2000 years, origin unclear". It also says that ferrets,
European polecats and river polecats can produce hybrids.
   The author mentions "Herter, K. 1959, Iltisse und Frettchen"
as source.
 
A Swedish translation of _GU Naturfuhrer Saugetiere_ (Field recognition
guide, mammals), 1988, by Helga Hoffmann makes a difference between polecats,
ferrets and polecat-ferrets. She also says that in places where there are no
polecats, like Sicily and Sardinia, escaped ferrets have established feral
colonies.
 
[It would be interesting to confirm whether these are really ferrets, crosses
or polecats.]
--
 Urban Fredriksson  [log in to unmask]
 
[Posted in FML issue 0965]