As anyone who has tried it knows, ferrets learn words very readily as long as they are repeated a lot and the sentence structure is kept rather simple (though over time a number grasp conditionals as in "Do this, then that happens.") They also tend to love a decent bit of music with plucked instruments being often adored and banjos next to heaven for many. This isn't any great surprise. They are descended from animals who often reside in purloined burrows and are active in low-light times like dawn and dusk (crepuscular activity) and their sight is often pretty poor even in their normal ranges. Recently we have been thinking about ferrets and percussive sounds. One of Ashling's favorite rappers died Saturday which is what brought up the topic. Most rap just doesn't do it for Steve and me but the rhythm work in the best ones is just astonishingly intricate and sophisticated, and that seemed to be what Lingity was listening to. She would SO dance for it. Have you ever noticed how percussive ferrets are, and thought about it? It makes sense really. Just like other animal sounds the ferrets hunting burrows would need to be able to separate out sounds filtering in from above from the other motions sounds and to understand those motion sounds. How many animals? What are they doing? Which way are they going? How rapidly are they moving? Are any of them juveniles? Are any of them lame or infirm? When out at dawn or dusk since their vision is poor hearing also would come greatly into play in avoiding predators on ground or from above. ALL of ours love bells, and a metal owl we have hung so they can clang it against a metal form which normally would hold a label for that drawer. They love to use the zoob tube. They often love, love, love to drum, in fact, Hilbert so loves drumming on the plastic barrier that if someone mistakes it for a desire to have whole house romp (which does also happen) he will turn around and begin drumming the barrier from the outside. Usually, he is pretty repetitive but sometimes he seems to be really playing with rhythms. I have not heard of anyone actually formally studying these thing in ferrets although certainly the topic has often enough come up in past discussions for years here on the FML. [Posted in FML issue 4697]