>Food for the ferrets could be - I believe that only a few ferrets in the
>US are fed a raw meat diet and trying to get a ferret that has been fed
>kibble can be extremely difficult.
 
Exactly.  Most we've known over the last 20+ years who are used to kibble
don't tend to recognize meat as a food.  It's yet one step further from
food for them to go to prey species.  Some pet ferrets here have been
reported as killing and eating critters, but some have been reported as
killing other critters and playing with them as toys but not eating them,
and yet others have reported ferrets (or had them on shows like Metropets
if I recall the name right) snuggling up happily with some species which
normally would be thought of as prey species.  There have been reports
here and elsewhere of ferrets who adopted house mice and would care for
them.  It's a situation here in which the tendency to hunt at all and the
ability to potentially hunt successfully vary widely.
 
Hunting specifics can be genetic, too, and can be reduced or missing from
that regard.  Don't forget the experiment in which crosses were done of
coyotes and a type of terrier.  Each killed and ate mice, one leaving the
feet behind and one leaving the tails behind.  A number of the crosses
would still kill mice but then would eat only the feet and the tail,
leaving all the rest behind -- not exactly successful hunters.
 
Yes, the neutering sure plays into what could not potentially happen, but
even before that there were attempts (multiple ones) in the states by
some of create feral ferrets.  They failed.
 
Like I said and am saying a third time in days: everyone can learn a lot
by reading the things that Thierry Lode and Bob Church have written on
this topic.
 
I'd greatly like to know if there has been any actual scientific study of
that British Island's situation.
 
If they did maybe the CA F&G wouldn't have as many chances to completely
destroy lakes when trying to rid them of one species, and wouldn't shoot
large house cats mistakenly thought to be mountain lions, and wouldn't
hide reports they didn't like, and wouldn't fake reports from other
state's naturalists, and wouldn't have pressured that state's health dept
to have a harder code than the Compendium for Animal Rabies Prevention
and Control" (though it was greatly improved from what had existed),
and... How does that department survive?  Do they have blackmailing stuff
on politicians?  LOL!  Maybe THAT is what parts of the staff do instead
of learning biology.  (Chuckling behind my hand.) ;-)
 
Re: a first generation cross individual of domestic ferret and polecat
cross
 
>Result is that we end up with a hybrid that is totally confused - it has
>the characteristics of both animals; does it run and hide when danger
>threatens or dash to investigate, is it gregarious or solitary, does it
>scream when a human approaches it or accept the attention.
 
OH, gosh!  Sounds like some of the crosses in studies of other species.
That sort of confusion can be so sad.  The success of such crosses varies
in all sorts of aspects.  I can see broadening a gene pool, and I can
honor hybrid vigor, but there is also a totally different side of the
situation which must also be considered.
[Posted in FML issue 4025]