Vision
I had always thought that this was ab item Californians had made up to prove
that ferrets are very different from polecats.  Now I'm curious as to in
what ways they do have different vision and how it's been determined.  (Is
it the structure or how they use it?)
 
Reproduction
That the reproduction does differ is clear to me, but I've never before read
that there's a difference in how many litters they can get per season.  Most
ferrets I know only get one litter per year, only ones who doesn't are the
ones who get their kits removed at an early time -- couldn't a polecat also
get more than one litter if the first kits all die?  That they can get into
heat between March and June would support this I'd think.
 
The difference which is really noticable is that polecats get a much more
consistent litter size than ferrets (compared to the number of tits where
mammals usually have the average number of a litter + 1 rounded up to the
nearest even number).
 
Intelligence
That polecats do need a minimum level of intelligence (if you can use that
word) in order to survive is obvious.  But since rather few polecat kits
survive to become adult, how much can we really know about the average
intelligence of them?  Has there been comparative intelligence tests made
between ferrets and polecats?
 
In what way to ferrets have smaller brains than polecats?  Polecats are
smaller, so if it's absolute size then ferrets must have proportionate
smaller heads (not apparent to me), thicker skulls or heads filled with more
emptyness.  Is it perhaps the number of neurons and interconnections?  If
so, how much to they differ?
 
--
 Urban Fredriksson  [log in to unmask]
 http://www.alfaskop.net/%7Egriffon/ferrets/
[Posted in FML issue 2081]