Now, as we all know, ferrets are not rodents (a common mistake made by
the press). They also are not viverrids. Viverrids are animals like
meerkats which fill a similar ecological niche but have a different
genetic background, though the press and occasionally others make that
mistake, too. Opps! Viverrids are descended from the feline branch of
Carnivora. Ferrets are mustelids and are descended from the canine
branch of Carnivora.

Here is where we get to the biology of behavior. There are two recent
stories on the ways that two members of the canine branch of Carnivora
use the magnetic field for two vastly different uses. Might the
magnetic field play a part in ferret behavior or in your approaches
to the ferrets' behavior? I do not know.

<http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/03/259416979/everyone-poops-but-dogs-do-it-with-magnetism>

<http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/01/03/259136596/youre-invisible-but-ill-eat-you-anyway-secrets-of-snow-diving-foxes>

[Posted in FML 8015]