Hi, I have posted something similar to this before, and just thought I'd remind folks that I'm still measuring ferret life span, and still collecting data. So, if you haven't done so already, please e-mail the following information about your ferret(s) : 1) if living, age at present; if deceased, age at death; 2) coloration - sable, albino, silver, etc. 3) sex 4) country and region 5) if deceased,identify apparent cause of death; if living please express my 'duhk!'s to them, but also please identify any diagnosed health complications. Incidentally, I'm finding that it is easier to tag data if I have the pet's name. And don't be afraid to include any info you think might be relevent (breeding origin, etc). It is best to describe each pet on one line - here's my best friends : Dakota, sable male, living, age 2.5, MF, GA, USA, healthy Gilligan, albino male, living, age 3.5, MF, GA, USA, healthy Guiniviere, albino female, living, age 8, unknown, GA, USA, tumor-removed Mythreal, silver, female, deceased, 7 yrs, unknown, GA, USA, insulinoma Sly, sable, male, deceased, 7 yrs, unknown, GA, USA, stomach tumor It'd sure be nice to get honest data about 100,000 to 250,000 ferrets... so far I have only gotten reports on 200 or so, and it is possible (I can't analyze this right now) that I might be able to arrive at a useful qualification of how long ferrets live based on as little as 350. The reader is also probably wondering if this is a black hole of info - it isn't. I will present first results in this list and in the alt.pets.ferrets newsgroup. I hope to make this presentation during the month of April 1997. At the very least I will present my methods, a mean age of death and variance, show attrition at age, and describe whatever computations are involved. If there are enough samples, perhaps it would also be useful to show any trends related to sex or color, or any other factor that is documented. A. [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1829]