Hi everyone, First of all, I'd like to thank the people who emailed me about Sebastian-- he's doing great and is happy to know so many people and ferrets are thinking of him! Now to the subject: I'm in a wildlife conservation class, and yesterday we were talking about non-endemic species and their effect on native wildlife. Someone brought up the subject of ferrets and how you once needed a permit to have them here (MA). The professor asked if anyone knew why they were illegal out west, and I told her about CA F&G is misinformed as to ferrets being wild animals, able to form feral colonies, and I explained that they have *very* little survival instincts. She then takes the gentle "yes-dear-but-I-know-what-I'm-talking-about-and-you-do-not" tone of voice and says that "even if it were only a period of three months, it would wreak havoc on black-footed ferret populations". I wanted to explain that we were talking about periods of days here, not months (do any of you know of a ferret who could survive in the wilderness for three months?), not to mention the fact that the majority of ferrets in the US are neutered and therefore can't reproduce, but decided to let it drop for the time being. But now there's a bee in my bonnet: can anyone point me towards information on the black-footed ferret, habitat destruction, competitors, etc.? Have there been any studies done on Mustela furo competing with Mustela negripes? It's one thing to run my mouth off in class, but it would be great if I could find concrete fact to back up my argument. It's a subject I'm really interested in anyway-- maybe I could earn extra credit, hehe. Thanks everyone! Rachel and the monsters [Posted in FML issue 4420]