There was an interesting new study recently -- on saber tooths, I think
that it was -- and it was expected during the time that the population
was dying out that more dietary related tooth breakage would be seen
because they'd be getting every last scrap of nutrition from game, but
actually fewer incidences of dietary tooth breakage were seen.  One
hypothesis -- of several advanced -- is that near the end there may have
been less large game and as a result they were making do with smaller
animals that were less likely to break their teeth than larger prey would
(looking at size and force relationships).  So, sometimes lack of dietary
tooth breakage in populations may indicate ecological deprivation and may
not indicate an optimal state for the shorter lifetimes that are seen in
the wild than in captivity or for the population.
 
The reason that I mention age is that when you go past normal ages of
survival in the wild there can easily be things which would be optimal
for those living the shorter and more challenging lifestyles of
wild-living which may be counter-indicated for an individual who will be
living a longer life -- just as medical approaches alter over the span of
a human life since childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age,
early old, and old-old all create different needs for humans.  Therefore,
what may well suit a mustelid which will die by 3 or 4 in the wild may
not suit one who is living to 7 or 8 or older in captivity, meaning that
many questions remain and some hypotheses will pan out while others will
fail, but it's impossible to know which are which when good data is used
until the studies are actually done.  It is also very possible that some
hypotheses will pan out for subsets but not for others.  An example is
that ferrets in their prime appear to do better with chemo for lympho
than others do.
 
Hope I said that clearly enough.  Yes, I've been pretty exhausted and
rushed recently, between time demands, ragweed, and sick relatives...
 
Get the Mouse... A ferret named "Disney", Alicia?  For Steve's office we
tried so hard to buy one of those human-adult-sized Wally Coyote sitting
on a metal chair floor displays from Warner Bros.  when Steve was doing
some consulting work for Disney.  It would have been a hoot.  Tax laws
prevented them from being able to provide one.
 
I need a nap...
 
Da boys and da girls.  Hey, on this regard I'm easy: if they love me
I love them... Gotta love all those kiss variations.  Sevie gets her
whiskers nd sometimes her tongue up our nostrils, Scooter tells us
"mrrrph" while he kisses, Glueball strokes our faces with a hand while
she kisses, etc.
[Posted in FML issue 3942]