>From: Angela Lowder <[log in to unmask]>
>I'm currently studying animal behaviour and have an assignment about the
>ways humans misunderstand animals ways of communicating...
>So the question is what do ferrets do that people misunderstand?
Hi Angela,
What an interesting topic! It applies ALL animal/human relationships.
When it comes to ferrets, I would say the biggest misunderstood "body
language" is when they "dook" (bounce around, tossing their head, making
chortling sounds). I've *heard* some stories about people thinking that
the ferret has "gone crazy", "rabid", etc. when in reality, it simply
means that the ferret is happy!
There is alot of confusion about what ferrets mean when they do something...
Some other examples of this are.... dragging another ferret around by the
neck, chewing on the ear of another ferret, "stealing" (do we REALLY know
why they do this?), biting, ....
It's very important to be in tune with your animal and to understand their
"language" especially when it comes to health issues. Many times an animal
will communicate illness (flat ferret immediately comes to mind) and the
clues are very clear if we actually SEE what the animal is doing. I'll
bet there are many, many people who, in hindsight, can say, "I should
have KNOWN he/she was getting sick when he did/started doing [fill in the
blank]."
I'm learning ferret language but I "speak cat" fluently. Taking this a
little bit off the topic of ferrets (if BIG doesn't mind... and if he does
he can just edit this part).... Dogs are notorious "whimps" (no flames
please)... when a dog is injured, it will whimper, whine, limp around, etc.
Cats, on the other hand, are much more stoic in their pain. It takes
longer to discover a cat is ill because they tend to "hide" their symptoms.
Therefore, if a person isn't diligent, the cat may be *very* sick by the
time it is discovered that something is amiss.
Good luck on your paper! It's a fascinating subject and I'd love to read
a copy of your paper when you're done!
Renee
[Posted in FML issue 3335]
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