I borrowed a book this weekend called "The Complete Guide to Ferrets" by James McKay, apparently a British author. I'm not too far into the book yet, but something just twelve pages in really struck me as odd, and I wondered if anyone had the facts to back this up. The book claims that a feral population of ferrets has become a danger to the native fauna including the kakapo, and the national bird of New Zealand, the kiwi. Apparently in 1882 ferrets were introduced in order to control the rabbit population, and the book claims that the ferrets have over run the country to the point of being a threat. I'd never heard this, and it seems kind of amazing to me, is it really true? What surprised me even more, was that the book says the same thing has happened on San Juan Island, Washington. I know a lot of people who vacation in the San Juans (which are beautiful islands in Puget Sound, north of Seattle), and no one ever said anything about a feral ferret population. The book says they were introduced for the same reasons, to control the rabbit population. The rest of the book is supposed to convey how wonderful ferrets are, as pets, and even scolds those in Britian who breed and sell many ferret kits just for rabbit hunting, and ferret racing. Both of which are apparently legal and popular in Europe. In fact the latter sections of the book tell how to go about rabbit hunting with your ferret. Other interesting facts are; if you don't have enough wild birds and other small animals to feed your ferret, "don't dispair" road casualties are perfectly acceptable. Needless to say, it's a very interesting book, but I'm not going to be taking Gargy out to feast on a cat carcass on the side of the road, even though Mr. Lipinski would probably applaud me. So..is the ferret population over running New Zealand, or even worse.. little San Juan, Wa? Robynn and Gargoyle ("they eat roadkill...ewwwww") [Posted in FML issue 2390]