This could be a dominance factor.  Is Merlin the dominant male ferret?  If
so, he knows he is the boss and this strange new male is pissing him off
because this is his territory.
 
It's sort of like with primates; when a new male comes near, they have to
demonstrate.  Whoever makes the most noise and the biggest motion is the
winner.  Just my 2 cents.
 
Shannon and the Cyberfuzzie Furbrats!
Mackenzie, Bailey, Sebastian & Felicia.
http://www.geocities.com/cyberfuzzie
 
Diddie wrote:
>Merlin took one sniff of the cable tech and went ballistic!!!  His whole
>body puffed up and he was barking and hissing at the same time.  When the
>tech left I let Merlin back out and he was still upset.  His tail was
>huge.  He stomped around smelling wherever the man had been hissing the
>whole time.
[Posted in FML issue 3331]