Q: (Private Posts; FML): Can ferrets see reflections? Can they see their
food? Can they see color? How far can they see?
 
A: Well, lets SEE...it may take a moment to respond because I've been
BLINDED by the intelligence of the questions.  I'll try to act like a LENS
to focus the answers clearly.  IRIS-el with these questions all the time...
 
Ferrets seem to be quite nearsighted, no doubt a response to their
adaptation to a burrowing lifeway and reliance on smell to find prey.  As
far as can be determined, their close-up vision is as sharp as ours, and
perhaps a wee bit sharper.  One of my e-mail pals is doing some work on
astigmatism in animals as an adaptation to hunting and predation pressures,
and preliminarily suggests the ferret has an eye that is astigmatic in the
horizontal mode, which she suggests is an adaption to flying animal
predation.
 
As for color, wild polecats see the long and short ends of the spectrum;
that is, the blues and red.  However, some studies suggest domesticated
ferrets have lost the ability to see the blues, so all the color they see
are the reds.  This is also probably an adaptation to a burrowing lifeway,
but is also common in predators that hunt in the dark.
 
Can they see their food? Sure, except for the time it is directly under
their nose, and a couple of sties have shown the ferret suffers a blind spot
in that location.  So they can see the food as they walk up to it, but when
they get their, it's up to the nose to find it.  If you watch the little
boogers closely, they start a shallow and rapid breathing at that time,
presumably to home in on the food with their noses.
 
Can they see their reflections?  Well, not if they are of the vampire
variety of ferret, somewhat common on the FML I've been told.  Sure they
can, as long as they are close enough.  They can also see the images on TV,
bright light spots from flashlights (some of mine love to chase them),
floating dust motes, and dangling earrings.  My son found my old pong game
(am I that old?) and hooked it up to the TV in his room, and several of the
ferrets (Bear, Chrys, and Nosette) spent considerable time watching the dot
bounce on the screen.  Andrew thought the game was lame, but had a good time
with the ferrets.  Sam-Luc, Sandy, and Ballistic regularly go after stuff on
TV programs, especially if the object is small and moving horizontally about
the speed of a mouse.
 
Q: (From the FML) Do ferrets get along with rabbits?
 
A: They rarely argue after the rabbit's death.
 
Ferrets are domesticated polecats, and the natural prey of the polecat
includes small and medium sized birds, frogs and toads, rodents of all sizes
and rabbits.  The size of the rabbit compared to the ferret is of little
consequence; stoats (about 1/2 the size or smaller of a ferret) will
regularly kill rabbits.  the effect of domestication on the hunting
instincts of ferrets seem to be variable; some ferrets live and never bother
animals that might normally be seen as prey in a wild state, and others will
lunge out and kill them.  Stella, my fat butterball, moves like greased
lightning at the first detection of a rat, but Bear will sleep with pets
rats.
 
Personally, I never feel comfortable with putting any prey and predator
species together; it doesn't matter if the predator species is a cat, dog,
or ferret, it just isn't safe or reliable for the prey species.  They might
get along for months, then one day you are shocked and wondering why the
sudden change.  And just because a ferret might get along with a rabbit
doesn't mean the opposite will hold true.  Rabbits evolved being hunted by
mustelids, and take them very seriously.  And prey species are not without
means of defending themselves, either.  Rabbits in particular can be quite
dangerous to stoats and polecats, and every ferreting book I've ever read is
loaded with stories of how ferrets come out of rabbit warrens (burrows)
covered with wounds from angry rabbits, or in ratting, covered with rat
bites (One book said it was about a 50-50 chance the ferret would win in a
fight with a rat, and having been at the business end of wild rats, I
believe the writer).  The rabbit has a kick that can eviserate a ferret,
teeth that can bite through a skull, and the size and speed to do both.  In
a burrow, I think the ferret has the advantage, with the long neck and
lightning speed, but in an open room, I think those advantages are lost.
Why take the chance?  I would be reluctant to put a ferret in the same room
as a rabbit.
 
If you do, don't be shocked if either pet is injured or killed.
 
Mo' Bob and the 17 Missouri Mustelids (In Memory of Buddy and Gus)
[Posted in FML issue 1867]