The Oregon Ferret Association web page has been updated with new shelter and
ferret photos, plus April's newsletter.  The web page address is
 
        http://www.teleport.com/~leonard/ofa/ofa.html
 
The following article was taken with permission from the April edition of
the OFA newsletter.
 
- Leonard Bottleman (editor of the OFA newsletter)
 
 
                        Scent of a Ferret
                        by Elayne Barclay
 
If you are like me, you enjoy watching ferret behavior.  Do you ever wonder
why your ferret does some of the things it does?  Ferrets have a mode of
communication largely unused by us -- olfaction.  Ferrets have an acute sense
of smell and therefore use odors as an important form of communication.
Studies have shown that scent gland secretions from ferrets have individually
unique chemical profiles.  Ferrets can identify the presence of a familiar
versus a strange ferret according to these odors and can tell whether a
ferret was present recently or a day ago.  The study found that males were
less aggressive towards strange ferrets when in the presence of the newcomer's
odor than when in the presence of their own odor.  This suggests that when
introducing new males it may be beneficial to do it in an area imbued with
the scent of the male suspected to be the subordinate individual.
 
Have you ever observed your ferret dragging its hindquarters along the ground
after defecating?  This is an obvious and common form of imparting its unique
odor to a location important to your ferret, proclaiming the site as its own.
A less obvious form of behavior involving ferret to ferret odor communication
is termed the belly crawl.  This behavior consists of the ferret lowering its
chest onto the ground and pushing forward with its back legs thereby bringing
its entire ventral surface into contact with the ground and sprawling out its
hind legs on either side.  The ferret then slides forward by wriggling or
paddling with its front legs.  Behavior studies have found that dominant
individuals exhibit this behavior more often than subordinates.  Chin rubbing
is another form of odor communication.  Rubbing was often seen when the ferret
was leaving a new feeding location or had just stashed some food in its den
area.
 
These methods of olfactory communication are largely indiscernible to us,
especially if your ferret is spayed or neutered, because of our inferior
sensory ability.  See if you can observe these interesting behaviors in your
pets and look for more behavior articles in future newsletters.
[Posted in FML issue 1179]