Dear Ferret Folks- Tayras? I am intrigued. I went to Katherine's link yesterday and saw a muscular, handsome looking fellow climbing around in a tree. He had the head of a predator, all burly muscle attachments for biting behind that face.I remember thinking "Wouldn't it suck if Caff-Pow could climb trees. He'd lie in wait like a panther and jump down scratching and biting like a buzz saw, just for fun. *His* fun." Yes, ferrets in trees would be ugly. You'd hear dooking, look up, and by then it would be too late, much too late. Here is Katherine's link from yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbWm3aD59vk This suspicion of mine was further strengthened when I found another Tayra video entitled "Tayras...D*** Tayras." The commentary accompanying this video reads " Working in d animal park meant me an Braz had 2 walk this b_stard animal everyday...yep the Tayra..an over sized weasel...3 can kill a human though...nasty f*****s". It's just an innocuous video of a curious long-tailed Tayra walking along the forest floor on a leash. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmx91CNAJek&feature=related Hardly looks like a dangerous critter, but I give the author and 'Braz' the benefit of the doubt. I suspect that they know things that we do not about this animal. Like,what fun it is when one jumps down on your head out of a tree scratching and biting like a buzz saw, probably just for fun because it lives in some sort of zoo and it is bored. A bored weasel is a terrible, terrible thing. We all know this, and we only have little weasels compared to the statuesque Tayra. I note that the accompanying text in Katherine's video describes the Tayra as being a youth in a family group of four. As in...you are walking along in the rainforests of Costa Rico doing your eco-tourism thing...how exciting! How National Geographicy! You have your camera and your binoculars and your hand sanitizer and your new Land's End clothes and BLAMMO! A bunch of these things things land on you snarling scratching and biting. Later, your chewed clean bones are sent back home in a box stuffed with packing peanuts by the Costa Rican government. The little abounded bottle of hand sanitizer (now well chewed) lies amongst the leaf litter, and is slowly absorbed into the forest. I would urge you not to run out and get a Tayra. Remember when the videos of the Flying Russian Sables hit the FML and everyone wanted one for about five minutes, until it became clear that *every* piece of furniture in the little apartment had been chewed, all the upholstry was *gone* from the sofas and chairs? And the little things could clearly make, like, fifteen foot horizontal leaps? And did, non-stop? Sometimes I wonder what became of that man with the Sables, living in his tiny Russian apartment as his last shoe was consumed, trapping him inside with *them?* And they were looking at him *hungrily?* The circle of Flying Russian Sables surrounding Ivan narrows perceptibly...their black little eyes glittering...Ivan realizes that he must run for his life, bare-footed into the cruel blue winter snow... Tayras...D*** Tayras. Alexandra in MA [Posted in FML 7103]