Humans are at the top of the pile of the big-brained animals, and each
one of us understands the negative impact of a lack of stimulation.
Each and every study has shown the same need for novelty and variability
(new experiences), complexity (intellectual thought), and sensory
stimulation (ALL senses: tactile/touch, visual/sight, olfactory/smell,
auditory/hearing, and gustatory/taste) in ALL the big-brained taxa, which
includes primates, marine mammals, elephants, and carnivores.  While
there are always exceptions, predators--as a group--tend to be smarter
than herbivores of the same body size.  A deer doesn't have to be very
smart to hear, see, smell, or run away from a cougar, but it takes a lot
of brainpower to remember where to find and how to catch such a good
evader.  Polecats, the ancestor (progenitor) of the domesticated ferret,
are no exception, being approximately the same intelligence of primates
of the same size.  Not just intelligence--polecats and ferrets share
other attributes of small primates, including intense curiosity, superb
problem solving ability, juvenile playfulness extended into adulthood,
ability to concentrate on a task (obsessive behavior, anyone?), and
outstanding memory.  For the polecat, these behavioral attributes made
them extremely successful animals, remaining virtually unchanged for
millions of years.  Not only did ferrets inherit these traits, BUT,
because they were domesticated for mousing and for hunting hamsters and
sousliks (and later rabbiting and ratting), they were bred for increased
curiosity and fearlessness.  It is important to understand that ferrets
are highly intelligent creatures with enhanced curiosity.  What is the
FIRST thing a ferret will do when released from a cage or placed in a
unfamiliar area?  THAT is the problem: they are designed to be explorers,
NOT cage-bound homebodies.
 
Older readers will remember early zoos (or the few remaining road-side
zoos); bleak, concrete dungeons filled with neurotic, pacing animals
prone to self-mutilation, short lifespan, and decreased reproductive
vigor.  Early zoos were designed to show people what animals looked
like and little else; if one died, another was procured.  No one cared
if the animal was unhappy or neurotic; the goal was to SEE the animal.
Thankfully, it was recognized that the more intelligent animals suffered
greatly from such exhibition: the more intelligent, the more extensive
the various neuroses.  For example, both herpestids (mongeese and related
animals) and mustelids (polecats and related animals) are comparable in
terms of intelligence, curiosity, and are subject to similar problems
initiated by caging conditions.  These problems include pacing and other
stereotypic behaviors, self-mutilation, reduced immunity, decreased
lifespan, reduced intelligence, and other difficulties associated with
unrelieved stress and boredom (mustelids tend to be solitary and
herpestids social, but, other than that they tend to have quite similar
behavioral traits).  In 1975 a critical review of then-current zoo
practices for confinement of mongeese, one writer wrote: "Unfortunately,
many zoo cages are devoid of anything that could interest a normal
mongoose and, as a result, the inmates squat apathetically in a nestbox
or pace up and down, oblivious to all around them, a classic case of
motor stereotypism." They exact same words could have been used to
describe confinement conditions of mustelids; the typical caging for
non-aquatic members (if kept at all!) was reptilian-like-- essentially
a glass-fronted box roughly 3 x 5 ft or smaller.
 
Such confinement conditions are now rare in the larger zoos and decried
in the smaller ones.  In some localities, such confinement is illegal,
even in scientific laboratories where in-house committees for the ethical
treatment of experimental animals force scientists to address enrichment
protocols.  However, bleak environments are STILL the norm for many
ferrets despite evidence it is a practice that decreases the quality of
life, while at the same time promoting or exacerbating those problems
that shorten lifespan.  However, it is not at zoos or in research labs
were the problems exist.  It is by the very people who love and admire
ferrets as pets.  It is a great irony that one of the things that made
ferrets popular as pets in the USA--the cage--is potentially the cruelest
torture ever inflicted upon them as well.  NO, I am NOT suggesting cages
need to be eliminated, or that ferrets should be allowed to roam free.
In many cases, the conditions in the home make caging a necessity, and in
other cases ferrets are so curious or destructive that freedom without
constant supervision is impractical.  Besides, it is more or less a fact
that ferrets have lived in cages for the last couple of thousand years
while in a state of domestication, so I am not convinced they cannot be
housed safely and humanely while caged.  However, there ARE important
differences between historic caging practices and modern caging that I
will address during the course of this discussion.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4181]