While I don't want to get involved in the domestic politics of another country it does seem that our situation could be unwittingly used in your argument. There are a large number (exactly how many is not known) of feral ferrets in New Zealand. They have been feral for over 100 years and, initially at least, their existence was due to deliberate pest-control releases into the wild of "ordinary" ferrets from Britain. From 1882 thousands of ferrets were introduced from Australia and Britain and thousands more were bred locally by the Department of Agriculture until 1897. These releases were accompanied by legal protection until 1903 to allow their numbers to build to match the rabbit explosion at the time. It is also possible that their numbers were "refreshed" in the late 1970s when breeding fitches were released as the fur market disappeared. Their feral existence is a bit of problem but the fact is they had quite a helping hand to get where they are today. Consequetly there is no establishment comparison between here and where you folk are. The only thing that could be drawn from here is that once established ferrets appear capable of maintaining a feral population. Possibly a more useful comparison is with domestic cats & the extent to which they can establish feral populations. Good luck Lawrence Roberts [Posted in FML issue 1184]