Hey Shirley,
Ferrets are indeed crepuscular! However, your comments bring out a
problem of interpreting observations and the need to rely on empirical
evidence rather than anecdotal evidence. It also brings out the
differences between "captive behavior" and "natural behavior." Ok,
it also points out a flaw in the reasoning of some scientists.
Assume person A says their ferrets are awake all day long and then
sleep most of the night. That would indicate a mostly diurnal lifeway.
Person B says their ferrets are mostly awake at night and sometimes are
awake during the day. That would indicate a mostly nocturnal lifeway.
Person C says their ferrets are awake at dawn and dusk and sometimes
also late at night and during the day. That would indicate a mostly
crepuscular lifeway. Ok, who is correct?
The answer is no one. These are animals kept in a captive environment,
influenced by the actions and activities of the owners. For whatever
reason(s), the ferrets are adapting to their particular situations and
their timings of activity does not reflect natural behavior, except
perhaps by coincidence.
It is very important to realize domestication does not create NEW
behaviors and the totality of wild behaviors remain in a domesticated
population. What domestication does do is extend a species' juvenile
or infant behaviors into adulthood, so the suite of behaviors SEEMS
different from an adult group, but they remain fundamentally the same
as in a wild population. For example, polecats are solitary animals,
but there are reports of some polecats that pair up with a sibling for
a while, and they generally accept opposite sex. Also, ferrets - which
are domesticated polecats - seem to be more gregarious. Because of
this apparent social nature, a myth has grown up in much of the ferret
community that ferrets are social, gregarious creatures. But they
aren't! Yes, groups of ferrets do live together, often without much
apparent difficulty, BUT what you are observing is an extended juvenile
behavior, NOT a new social behavior. That is why many older ferrets
become asocial, why ferrets that have lived alone tend to not accept
new same-sex ferrets, and why sometimes it is so hard to get two female
ferrets to get along.
Realizing that domestication doesn't change a crepuscular species into
a diurnal one, we have to ask ourselves, "Why are there so many time
differences in activity patterns?" Part of the answer lies in
understanding that the classification of animals into the "nocturnal -
crepuscular - diurnal" activity categories is a totally arbitrary
decision. These are points along a single continuum showing two basic
overlapping modalities. Think of a classroom "bell curve" where a few
of the students do poorly, many do well, and some excel. You have the
same thing when it comes to activity periods, except you have two
overlapping bell curves on a single line. However, don't think of it
in a line, but bend it into a circle. The right side of the circle has
the 'daytime" bell curve, and the left side of the circle has the
'nighttime' bell curve. The points where they overlap at the top and
bottom of the circle represent the dusk and dawn part of the activity
cycle; the crepuscular part. This is why I have always rejected the
idea that crepuscular animals are actually nocturnal. It is not true;
they are exploiting and are adapted to a specific area of the day-night
cycle that is either neither or both nocturnal and diurnal. They are
crepuscular.
In a captive situation, ferrets, being intelligent and yet strangely
still enjoying the company of humans, generally live in a confined area
without the ability to disperse or explore the outside environment.
These animals adapt to visits by their human caregivers, even to the
point of changing their sleep patterns so they are awake when people
are present and interesting things happen. Mine do this; if I want to
spend time working on the computer or bones without a dozen ferrets
climbing up my legs, I go in about 10 am and work until 3 pm. As long
as I don't talk, I am left alone. However, at about 4pm, when I usually
go up to check on everyone, give treats and make sure the water bowl is
full and clean, the beasties wander over and demand their time in my
arms. They have adapted a plastic behavior to fit a particular living
situation.
So, the bottom line is that while ferrets are naturally crepuscular,
their behavior is plastic and easily adaptable to specific situations.
In this case, anecdotal evidence does not reflect normal species
behavior, which means it cannot be used to set a behavioral baseline,
even if a majority of FML members report their ferrets are awake all
day. The anecdotal evidence is only reporting an epiphenomenon of
captivity, where captive ferrets adapt a normally plastic behavior to
better suit the needs of confinement.
I will say that reports of wild polecats, New Zealand feral ferrets,
and the one report I've read of a group of ferrets allowed to set their
own schedules in a natural light environment, all indicate they are
crepuscular. Well, except the ones that break all the rules.
Bob C [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML 5546]
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