Humans are at the top of the pile of the big-brained animals, and each one of us understands the negative impact of a lack of stimulation. Each and every study has shown the same need for novelty and variability (new experiences), complexity (intellectual thought), and sensory stimulation (ALL senses: tactile/touch, visual/sight, olfactory/smell, auditory/hearing, and gustatory/taste) in ALL the big-brained taxa, which includes primates, marine mammals, elephants, and carnivores. While there are always exceptions, predators--as a group--tend to be smarter than herbivores of the same body size. A deer doesn't have to be very smart to hear, see, smell, or run away from a cougar, but it takes a lot of brainpower to remember where to find and how to catch such a good evader. Polecats, the ancestor (progenitor) of the domesticated ferret, are no exception, being approximately the same intelligence of primates of the same size. Not just intelligence--polecats and ferrets share other attributes of small primates, including intense curiosity, superb problem solving ability, juvenile playfulness extended into adulthood, ability to concentrate on a task (obsessive behavior, anyone?), and outstanding memory. For the polecat, these behavioral attributes made them extremely successful animals, remaining virtually unchanged for millions of years. Not only did ferrets inherit these traits, BUT, because they were domesticated for mousing and for hunting hamsters and sousliks (and later rabbiting and ratting), they were bred for increased curiosity and fearlessness. It is important to understand that ferrets are highly intelligent creatures with enhanced curiosity. What is the FIRST thing a ferret will do when released from a cage or placed in a unfamiliar area? THAT is the problem: they are designed to be explorers, NOT cage-bound homebodies. Older readers will remember early zoos (or the few remaining road-side zoos); bleak, concrete dungeons filled with neurotic, pacing animals prone to self-mutilation, short lifespan, and decreased reproductive vigor. Early zoos were designed to show people what animals looked like and little else; if one died, another was procured. No one cared if the animal was unhappy or neurotic; the goal was to SEE the animal. Thankfully, it was recognized that the more intelligent animals suffered greatly from such exhibition: the more intelligent, the more extensive the various neuroses. For example, both herpestids (mongeese and related animals) and mustelids (polecats and related animals) are comparable in terms of intelligence, curiosity, and are subject to similar problems initiated by caging conditions. These problems include pacing and other stereotypic behaviors, self-mutilation, reduced immunity, decreased lifespan, reduced intelligence, and other difficulties associated with unrelieved stress and boredom (mustelids tend to be solitary and herpestids social, but, other than that they tend to have quite similar behavioral traits). In 1975 a critical review of then-current zoo practices for confinement of mongeese, one writer wrote: "Unfortunately, many zoo cages are devoid of anything that could interest a normal mongoose and, as a result, the inmates squat apathetically in a nestbox or pace up and down, oblivious to all around them, a classic case of motor stereotypism." They exact same words could have been used to describe confinement conditions of mustelids; the typical caging for non-aquatic members (if kept at all!) was reptilian-like-- essentially a glass-fronted box roughly 3 x 5 ft or smaller. Such confinement conditions are now rare in the larger zoos and decried in the smaller ones. In some localities, such confinement is illegal, even in scientific laboratories where in-house committees for the ethical treatment of experimental animals force scientists to address enrichment protocols. However, bleak environments are STILL the norm for many ferrets despite evidence it is a practice that decreases the quality of life, while at the same time promoting or exacerbating those problems that shorten lifespan. However, it is not at zoos or in research labs were the problems exist. It is by the very people who love and admire ferrets as pets. It is a great irony that one of the things that made ferrets popular as pets in the USA--the cage--is potentially the cruelest torture ever inflicted upon them as well. NO, I am NOT suggesting cages need to be eliminated, or that ferrets should be allowed to roam free. In many cases, the conditions in the home make caging a necessity, and in other cases ferrets are so curious or destructive that freedom without constant supervision is impractical. Besides, it is more or less a fact that ferrets have lived in cages for the last couple of thousand years while in a state of domestication, so I am not convinced they cannot be housed safely and humanely while caged. However, there ARE important differences between historic caging practices and modern caging that I will address during the course of this discussion. Bob C [Posted in FML issue 4181]