>From: Jammy Leigh Blackburn <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: question about colors >Well, i`m reading this book on ferrets, and in one article it says that >some ferret owner people think that albinos are the "purest" form of the >ferret, then says that some other ferret owner people think that sables >are the "purest". I`m not a ferret expert <not yet atleast :) > and >wanted to know what this meant. So if ya know will you please tell me? There is no 'purest' color. Thats a meaningless term. Some folks have the bizarre belief that albino was the original color of the ferret. Not likely. The ferret is a domestic species derived from the European polecat. The first ferrets would without a doubt have been the color of polecats. The albino thing seems to run in the same circles as the Egyptian ferret claims. Where the confusion probably comes from is the older American habit of calling white (albino) ferrets 'English ferrets. while calling the various brown ferrets 'polecat ferrets' or 'fitch ferrets'. Unfortunately this gets confused with the also non-standard conventino of calling all ferret-polecat hybrids either 'fitch ferrets' or 'polecat ferrets'. This confused some people into thinking the brown ones were hybrids and the white ones where 'pure'. Not true. There is no way of knowing when the genetic chocolates came into existance. But albino ferrets go way way back. Its quite common for man in the domestication process to emphasize 'white' animals. In nature white animals are often easier to see and thus get eaten. One theory is that albino ferrets were sometimes thought easier to see when hunting. Or else people just like them. -bill -- bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets http://www.zenferret.com/ mailto:[log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2564]