In writing about ferrets "smelling or not smelling" water, I should like to
ask observers of the active ferret to look closely at the postioning of the
ferret's whiskers in relation to what the ferret is doing at any given time
and event.
 
For example, the ferret's whiskers on both sides of its muzzle (there are 8
parallel rows of whiskers, no more no less) are brought forth by muscular
action when it licks ferretone from the top of the bottle cap.  The
whiskers seem to be trying to feel the bottle/bottle top at its muzzle.
Otherwise the whiskers seem to be held folded back in a more or less
streamlined fashion, in a manner suggesting that the ferret wants to get
them out of the way.  If there is an intermediate postion from folded
rearwards to curled forwards I have not seen it related to any particular
activity, except one.  This one intermediate position of the ferret's
whiskers is characteristic of the peculiar sweeping action with only the
tips of the whiskers, as the ferret sweeps his head alternately sideways
over a large bowl of water in a white bowl.  It is as though the ferret
cannot see the water in the white bowl and is using the tactile or
feeling sense of its whiskers to locate the surface of an apparently
unseen "something" which is the water.  Then to further antagonize human
understanding, the ferret will transfer its weight to one front paw on
the edge of the bowl and will do what I can only describe as a "water
scratching" with its unweighted paw claws.  This is repeated with
increasing frequency until the entire area is saturated with water
spashed out by the ferret's "water scratching."
 
I should like to invite commentary on what you think the ferret is trying
to do with this little understood behavior.
 
Thanks,   Edward Lipinski     F.E.R.R.E.T.S., NW
 
PS To you sleeping ferret cuddlers out there, give us a report on how many
whiskers you count on each of the 8 parallel rows of the ferrets muzzle.
Are the numbers the same for all ferrets or could the numbers differ
between females and males or between sub-species of ferrets?  Is the
whisker count of taxonomic value?
[Posted in FML issue 2881]