For Robynn, who was wondering about the feral ferrets in NZ and on the San
Juan Islands in the US after reading about them in the McKay book.  I think
others will probably cover this in more detail, but since I lent the book
in question, I'll take a stab at it.  :-)
 
The colony on the San Juan Islands died out, although I do not know when.
I also don't know how long this colony was actually there, or whether
these were polecat hybrids or what-not -- but they were unable to sustain
themselves there.  In NZ, ferrets and polecats were released and have
inter-bred - it's difficult to say if those are really "ferrets" as such
running about now.  NZ has a very unique set of indigenous animals, no
ground predators (I think the only native mammals are bats?), and
flightless birds are a big thing there.  And these made easy pickings for
the ferrets/polecats, who were supposed to be eating rabbits - the rabbits
were also non-native.  Many parts of NZ, I believe, still have very
serious problems with predation by ground-dwelling mammals - not just
ferrets/polecats, and many of their native flightless birds are in serious
danger.  (Sam, I swear, if I've messed up any NZ info, it was
unintentional -- forgive me!)
 
The important thing to remember is that this happened in *NZ* which has a
completely different set of native fauna than most of the US, say, for
instance, CA.  Here, the chance of ferrets going feral is nil in part
because there are already predators (mink, weasels, etc..) in that niche
in place, plus there are animals to prey on things like ferrets.
 
For a vastly superior and more detailed account of all of this, search the
FML archives for the subject phrase: bob feral ferrets. :)  This should pull
up one of Bob C.'s wonderful educational series of postings from a little
while back.
 
The McKay book, in my opinion, is a delightful thing to read because it is
*so different* from most of the other ferret books I've seen, because of its
working animal focus.  And I love the part in the beginning where he talks
about people from the US and how we buy inordinate numbers of things like
*toys* for our ferrets.  Heh, heh, that would be me!  And McKay clearly
loves his ferrets very much, it's just a different way of keeping them.
Plus, it has great pictures.  Roadkill is a gross, but if the unfortunate
critter was healthy and the roadkill is fresh, it's probably pretty good
ferret food.  >:-O
 
        -Pam                          ...a ferret in the hand is worth two
        [log in to unmask]           in the socks drawer...
[Posted in FML issue 2391]