Polecats have round ears like ferrets.  But not all ferrets have ears with
the exact same shape, so it's hardly a way to recognize fitch-ferrets.
 
Bob Church <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>As for the "wild" blood in ferrets, I really don't know why anyone in the
>USA (where ferret hunting is illegal almost everywhere) would even want a
>ferret that was part polecat.
 
* Trying to get "healthy genes" into the gene pool (which I think can be
  done anyway).
* Be different.
 
>Domestication of the ferret has been so successful that many hunters have
>back-bred ferrets with polecats to help increase their aggressiveness and
>hunting instincts.  They do not have a primary purpose of cuddling with the
>little beasts, so some nasty behavior is accepted in the hopes of more
>rabbit for the dinner plate.
 
Hunters here seem to think that hunting ferrets need to be very
non-aggressive towards humans and while I know they aren't cuddled in every
region of Sweden, in some they are when they aren't working.  I think you
can also find British examples of "most excellent hunters" who regularily
get taken to shows and the like to be petted by children, just because
they're very cuddly.
 
>Besides, if you think ferrets are sometimes destructive to property, try an
>animal that's twice as smart and three times stronger.
 
I suppose it's easy to measure the relative muscle strengths of ferrets and
polecats, but how do you ensure they've gotten the same kind of fitness
training?  Is there also a difference in the proportion of slow and fast
muscle fibres between them?
 
Precisely what kind of intelligence tests have polecats shown they perform
better on than ferrets?
--
 Urban Fredriksson  [log in to unmask]  http://www.canit.se/%7Egriffon/
 http://www.alfaskop.net/%7Egriffon/ferrets/
[Posted in FML issue 2161]