>From:    Jammy Leigh Blackburn <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: question about colors
>Well, i`m reading this book on ferrets, and in one article it says that
>some ferret owner people think that albinos are the "purest" form of the
>ferret, then says that some other ferret owner people think that sables
>are the "purest".  I`m not a ferret expert <not yet atleast :) > and
>wanted to know what this meant.  So if ya know will you please tell me?
 
There is no 'purest' color.  Thats a meaningless term.
 
Some folks have the bizarre belief that albino was the original color of
the ferret.  Not likely.  The ferret is a domestic species derived from the
European polecat.  The first ferrets would without a doubt have been the
color of polecats.  The albino thing seems to run in the same circles as
the Egyptian ferret claims.
 
Where the confusion probably comes from is the older American habit of
calling white (albino) ferrets 'English ferrets. while calling the various
brown ferrets 'polecat ferrets' or 'fitch ferrets'.  Unfortunately this
gets confused with the also non-standard conventino of calling all
ferret-polecat hybrids either 'fitch ferrets' or 'polecat ferrets'.  This
confused some people into thinking the brown ones were hybrids and the
white ones where 'pure'.  Not true.
 
There is no way of knowing when the genetic chocolates came into existance.
But albino ferrets go way way back.  Its quite common for man in the
domestication process to emphasize 'white' animals.  In nature white
animals are often easier to see and thus get eaten.  One theory is that
albino ferrets were sometimes thought easier to see when hunting.  Or else
people just like them.
 
-bill
 
--
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2564]