Danee wrote:
>Both steppe polecats and European polecats are listed as being
>nocturnal, or mostly nocturnal on Wikipedia.  Additionally, in
>searching other sources, polecats in general are said to be nocturnal.
>This would lead me to think that long exposure to daylight would not
>constitute a natural existence for ferrets.

Well, there is nocturnal (night active) and then there is crepuscular
which sometimes gets lumped in there.  Polecats have most of their
activity in low light periods such as dawn and dusk (crepuscular).
(BTW, Diurnal mammals also have times of day when they are usually less
active than in other portions of the day such as the during the worst
heat times in summer.) When that isn't enough (poor weather conditions,
lack of game, etc.) night is preferred over day to compensate, but if
that doesn't suffice then they will be active in day light, too.  In
this they are like raccoons.  (Hopefully, unlike raccoons when they
have to use that flexibility they don't have people screaming, "It's
out in the day!  Shoot it!  It must be rabid!"  The last time I heard
someone freaking that way in relation to a mom raccoon and large but
still dependent young who were peacefully scavenging in a day after 3
straight heavy nights and days of extreme storms and showed no signs of
illness, in fact they looked in marvelous health though coming off a
fast.  Plus, it was during a time of rabies rates being background ones
rather than during a bad year.  People can make such weird
assumptions.)

Being diurnal humans tend to too often assume that everything has
diurnal demands and background, and to just look at the good parts of
light while forgetting the good parts of darkness.  Lighting the night
(beyond small pools of light) is quite a recent change for humans.
We forget that there are hormonal aspects of health which darkness
requirements.  The latest really cool set of human studies on the
importance of darkness involved breast malignancies, if I recall
right. Yes, we diurnal being need darkness, too.  Melatonin can 
be supplemented and that certainly can help, but the supplemented
melatonin doesn't seem to be as effective often as what our own bodies
make when we get enough darkness for long enough. (Of course, bodies
and schedules are not always cooperative about having long sleep and
deep darkness; I am in that position myself, so I understand that, and
it IS time for me to buy myself a new eye mask.)

Anyway, Danee's confirming point that the ancestry of ferrets is one
of low light exposure is completely valid and well established. Thanks,
Danee.

Thanks, too, to Shirley who pointed out to me that she is not a
breeder, which I had thought she was.  I hope that she DOES get in
touch with Dr. Michelle Hawkins and offer the DNA for study if they
are still collecting it.

-- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my  
private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love  
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org

[Posted in FML 5398]