Alexandra writes
>I know that this is not what people want to hear, but yes, ferrets can
>and do live in the wild in New Zealand.  I saw one myself there on my
>honeymoon.  We got a good long look at it, it was unquestionably a
>ferret.  I don't know if they are living wild on the north island, but
>they are on the south island where we were.  If they can live in the
>wild there, I don't see why they can't naturalize in other places like
>California or Hawaii.
 
Bob Church has probably studied this more than any other person on earth.
He found one commonality in all cases where domestic ferrets were able to
establish a feral colony, even just temporarily--a large population of
rabbits.  [private conversation] Furthermore, I THINK he may have said it
was a NON-NATIVE population of rabbits.
 
Ferrets briefly formed a feral colony on San Juan Island, WA.  When the
rabbit population crashed, the ferrets disappeared.  Ferrets were able to
go feral in NZ not only because of the HUGE numbers that were released and
the lack of better adapted native competitors, but because of the HUGE
number of (also introduced) rabbits present.  This is why ferrets were
brought there.  By the way, wild polecats were also released in large
numbers, and Bob believes the interbreeding between the two means the
ferrets are no longer domestic ferrets, but have reverted to wild
polecats.
 
>I think that a better question is, "can naturalized ferrets do ecological
>damage?"
 
An even better one is can/have they done any more damage than dogs, cats,
rats and pigs, also introduced onto the NZ islands?  Or more than caused
by the destruction of habitat by humans?
 
>I do not argue that the powers that be in California, Hawaii, and New
>Zealand have reason for concern when it comes to ferrets.  The weight
>and evidence of history suggests that it is not an entirely misplaced
>concern.
 
New Zealand is not California is not Hawaii.  The factors that allowed
the ferret to survive in NZ are NOT and never will be present in CA or HA.
This of course is not to say that an individual ferret may not get loose
and survive long enough to kill one or more native animals.  But it is
extremely unlikely they could form feral populations and be responsible
for the extinction on any species.  In fact, I don't believe there is any
proof the ferret is responsible (or chiefly responsible) for the
extinction of any NZ species.
 
Bob could say much more on this topic, and I hope I am not grossly
misrepresenting the information he gave me.  I know he is no longer a
member of this list, but I hope he will pop by to fill us in on this
topic.
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3741]