While this post is more in the interest of the Fellow Ferret Geeks List, I am cross posting it to the FML because of it's possible value in answering ferret legalization questions for non-Geek members. I have lost the original question, but someone asked me if I knew if any references existed regarding the DIRECT ocmpetition of American mink with ferrets. Not specifically for ferets, but there are a few for mink vs. polecats. The best as far as I am concerned, is the following: Thierry Lode 1993 Diet composition and habitat use of sympatric polecat and American mink in western France. Acta Theriologica 38:161-166. Basically, the paper says that European polecat and American mink compete partially for food and habitat in western France. Evidence suggests the American mink has partially marginalized the niche possessed by the European polecat through direct competition. Also, in a communication with Dr. Lode, he told me "...polecats (and European mink M lutreola) are also directly preyed by feral American minks. I found a female polecat killed and partially eaten by a male mink near Redon (NorthWestern France). By the way, polecats tend to decline where American minks occur. Feral American mink populations are mainly restricted in Bittany although some individuals were found throughout the country." Dr. Lode would know; he is currently one of the most frequent publishers of scientific data on polecats and mink in the world. In short, he is a world expert in the matter. (He also has a web page with references and very interesting and useful material on it. You can find it at: <http://sciences.univ-angers.fr/ecologie/BibliographyMustelid.html> Since European polecats possess hunting behaviors, olfactory imprinting, and predator advoidance behaviors that are better than found in domesticated polecats, it is reasonable to assume the occasional lost or misplaced ferret could not fair better than a wild polecat existing within an environmental niche sympatric (or living in the same area) with and being out-competed and preyed upon by mink. In North America, the habitats best suited for feral ferrets are those which are already possessed by several species of weasels and the American mink. In more than a century of confirmed ferret breeding in the USA, there exists not a single feral ferret colony. Why? One major reason is they cannot out-compete the local mustelids enough to establish a permanent presence. Sorry CaCaLand Fishing Gestapo and Cranioanal Impaction Society. You need to do a wee bit of reading. Hell, you need a wee bit of a cranial enema. Bob C and 16 Mo' Fartin' (not feral) Ferrets [Posted in FML issue 2929]