>From:    Urban Fredriksson <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Pointed ears
>I suppose it's easy to measure the relative muscle strengths of ferrets and
>polecats, but how do you ensure they've gotten the same kind of fitness
>training?  Is there also a difference in the proportion of slow and fast
>muscle fibres between them?
>Precisely what kind of intelligence tests have polecats shown they perform
>better on than ferrets?
 
We'd suspect that Bob is drawing some parallels between mustella
furo/putorius and other species as much as actual IQ test performed on
ferrets and polecats.
 
It is common in domestication for animals to be bred to retain more juvenile
characteristics.  The statements Bob made comparing polecats to ferrets match
the comparisons between wolves and dogs and domesticated and wild cats.
 
The slowness would correspond to less developed (more juvenile) body
structures.  The less intelligence matches the juvenlie brain development.
The fact that ferrets can be kept social has been pointed out by Bob to be a
retention of juvenile characteristics.
 
Other traits often brought in with domestication are larger eyes, shorter
snouts, and other traits that make the adult face more like the juvenile.
 
European domestic ferrets are seemingly closer to polecats than American.
This is from our analysis of American (US and Canada), Swedish (including
angora), German and English ferrets.  The poley crosses have been with
English and more recently US American.  This is merely a by product of
ferrets being brought in to be indoor pets earlier in the US than in Europe.
Ferrets on this continent are more removed from wild or hunting/working
animals.  As such the "niceness" is more imporant than their endurance for
chasing rabbits or rats.
 
The broader dispersal in the US of the fancy colors and patterns (some times
referred to as designer ferrets for some weird reason) is another by product
of the earlier migration indoors.
 
>From:    Jan Fleury <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Who Is It?
>Looks like we're gonna hafta have a vote on which sorta Whattie** it is in
>the 'O Canada' movie at the Canadian pavilion at Epcot.  Is it a ferret, or
>an otter, or a weasel, or a mink, or a poley (polecat?), or WHAT!?
 
Place your bets on Black footed ferret if it really "looks like a ferret".
Its the only "polecat" native to Canada.  If its a different pattern of
coloration then you have a list of weasels, fishers, martens, and the mink
to choose from.  Solid color would make it seem like fisher/marten/mink.
Weasels often have white bellies and black tail tips.  Otters are also in
Canada but along with wolverines and badgers are less likely to be confused
with the domestic ferret.
 
Its a bit unfortunate that the BFF sahres the name of its domestic cousins
instead of its other wild cousins.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2162]