Hi All,
 
  I was in the Denver Public Library library today looking for ferret books
and came across a thick research book titled "Animal Play Behavior" by Robert
Fagen.  I figured that no self-respecting book with that kind of title could
fail to mention ferrets, so I thumbed through it.  Sure enough, in amongst the
equations of play (I'm not kidding) and other scientific stuff, I found 6
pages devoted to ferrets (and their relatives).  Here's a chopped up and
pieced together quote of the more interesting stuff (many of the sentences
have research references in them, but I'm leaving those out):
 
  "Play in the genus Mustela (weasels, stoats, ermines, and mink) includes
catlike stalking, rushing or springing from ambush, and body-contact
interactions.  Ermine (Mustela erminea) and ferrets (Mustela furo) solicit
play from a partner by hopping stiff-legged around it, back arched and tail
high.
  "Hand-raised animals without conspecific play partners and older individuals
are known to exhibit considerable amounts of exercise play.  Ermine run,
collide with objects or walls, leap vertically in place, or roll on their
backs; these behaviors can be stimulated by "interesting" substrates like
leaf litter or snow, by sounds, or by the presence of the human who reared
them.  A hand-raised mink chased her tail.  Object play is not often described
for young captive Mustela, who seem to prefer human hands, fingers, feet,
and legs as playthings...
  "The conventional wisdom that playfighting is silent may require some
modification in the case of Mustela.  Ermines "mucker" (grumble softly,
purr, mutter) in play, the play of two young mink "was always accompanied
by a great deal of hissing, squealing and growling from both participants,"
and ferrets keep up a continual chattering as they play-chase, wrestle, and
explore, but hisses and squeals do not often occur unless fights
escalate...  {Fagen spends the rest of the paragraph describing in a
scientifically-roundabout way the sound of dooking :-)}
  "Transitions and intermediate stages between play and fighting are easily
produced in polecats (Mustela putorius), in ferrets, and in their hybrids.
To provoke an escalated fight between two playful young ferrets, one need
only toss a food item halfway between them and an escalated contest will
ensue..."
 
  The rest of the section talks in boring, stuffy language about play in the
wilder relatives.  Since the book was published in 1981, pre-FML, it doesn't
mention the naturally-occurring play objects found in ferret environments,
such as dryer hoses, PVC tubes, socks and dishwashers.  But there it is,
a scientific survey on why your ferret acts the way it does (at least
partially -- some things ferrets do are just plain weird :-)).
 
  Sorry I don't have any personal ferret anecdotes to share, but I am still
ferretless.  I bought a decent cage in Virginia a few months ago, just
before I moved out here, and planned to adopt a few fuzzies when I got
here, but I had to get an apartment and I couldn't find a place which
wouldn't charge me an exorbitant fee to let me keep ferrets :-(  I'll just
have to start house-hunting sooner, I guess.  In the meantime, I'll make do
with my underwater, orange, "glub glub"ing ferret substitutes, and the
rest of you please keep posting those great stories for those of us who must
remain without ferrets!
 
Kirk Pearson
[log in to unmask]
 
P.S. Hi to Bo and Anais and their owners if they are still on the FML!
[Posted in FML issue 0980]