One very lucky little stoat!

Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 2:46 am  
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Tracy, a ferret owner in NSW, very kindly sent me the link to this news article which was about a stoat that had been trapped in the grille of a BMW being driven on a country road at night in Lincolnshire.

stoat

Apparently the driver swerved to avoid a hedgehog on the road and as he did, he noticed a pair of startled eyes staring at him in his BMW’s headlights.

He said he didn’t feel a bump so assumed he’d missed the animal and continued on his way home.

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Black-footed ferrets at boot camp

Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 1:02 am  
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This article, in the Globe & Mail Science section, talks about how scientists have to teach the black-footed ferrets they’ve bred to “be wild”.

Apparently, back in 1991, they just released the black-footed ferrets straight from their cages, where they were bred, onto the prairies and … guess what … nearly all of them died, having been taken by coyotes and badgers. Those little fellahs had no idea how to escape their predators.
So now they’ve worked out that they need to TEACH black-footed ferrets how to survive in the wild, so they are taking them to boot camp to learn the things which their mother should have taught them.
Hmmm, let me think!
The Californian authorities state that if ferrets are allowed as pets in that state, they *might* escape and start colonies of feral ferrets (yes I know, most ferrets in the States are sterilised at a young age but that small point has obviously been overlooked by the CDFG) which will, in turn, cause havoc on the fragile Californian ecosystem.
And here we have scientists telling us that black-footed ferrets, which are bred in captivity, have no idea how to be wild and in order to survive, they have to be taught how to be wild.
Now – does anyone think that maybe, just maybe, the light of reason will come on in the brains of those particular civil servants and they might actually realise that they have been wrong in branding the DOMESTIC ferret a danger to the state?!
I would also like to put that point to the authorities in Queensland and the Northern Territory! It’s even more ridiculous that ferrets are banned there because there is NO WAY an escaped ferret will survive in the humid, tropical conditions, nor would it probably survive the snakes, poisonous cane toads and crocodiles that inhabit the area.
Grumph!
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YAY! Marbled polecats on view at the Columbus Zoo

Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 12:02 pm  
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A ferret owner who know my fascination with all things mustelid sent me this link to a video clip showing Shawn Brihob, from the Columbus Zoo, being interviewed on a morning show and showing off two young marbled polecats.

You simply have to see this … these two little mustelids are just so cute and just seeing them pronk around the studio floor is absolutely wonderful :)
Something I found quite remarkable was that he (Shawn) was happy to chat to the interviewer while the two kits were dancing around the floor – I don’t think I could be that casual if I had my ferrets running around on a studio floor like that!  
In fact, I would say that, quite often if I’m stressed about things, I dream about having my ferrets in rooms with open windows and doors and I’m rushing around trying to round them all up!  I wake up in a total state of exhaustion and feel quite unrelaxed!  Ahhhh the pleasures of being a ferret owner ;-)
However … back to these marbled polecats … I am seriously jealous that I won’t ever see these little fellahs in the zoos here in Australia but I am really glad that they’re in the USA.  Apparently Columbus Zoo is one of six zoos around the States which have marbled polecats.
I hope that people seeing these two clowns prancing around will get to realise that mustelids really aren’t blood-thirsty carnivores but highly intelligent and amusing little critters that bring pleasure to people.
Well, I guess we can live in hope that that will happen :)  
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More about Marbled Polecats

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 8:38 am  
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How incredible!  Just recently I was contacted by an Israeli guy who asked if he could send me pictures of an animal he came across to find out what it was.

Sure enough, it was another Marbled Polecat!  
I pointed him to my site about the mustelid and asked if he could give me any more details about how and where he came across it.  I just got a YouTube message from him, pointing me to a clip he put up about meeting the animal in a forest in Israel.

There are some extremely clear shots of it and if you read my page about the animal, you’ll know that having its tail curled above its back means its in a defensive pose, yet it didn’t seem at all frightened by a human being so close.  

It really is such a cute little thing … and I can’t get over how odd it looks :)
I’m sure you’ll enjoy the clip as much as I did.

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More on Emo, the marbled polecat

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am  
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Nadia sent me more photos of her cute little fellow and I finally got my act together and wrote about the Marbled Polecat on my site.  If you’re interested in learning more about this fascinating little creature, please have a look :)

I really can’t get over how small Emo is – and isn’t he just the cutest little mustelid on this earth?  Well no, that’s silly, because I reckon all mustelids are adorable, but this one has really stolen my heart :)
It would be so wonderful if we could import these creatures into Australia but – hah – in my dreams!  We can’t even get new ferrets into Oz.  And why is that?  No idea!  Any new ferret has to come into Australia as a zoo creature …. go figure!
I wouldn’t have known a ferret, or any kind of mustelid, if it had come and bitten me on the nose 16 years ago and then I got Mash, a little albino girl with very expressive eyebrows and the most wonderful personality ever, and my world changed.  
From being a dog and cat lover, I suddenly fell in love with the wonderful world of ferrets, and, as I researched more about them, I found that the whole mustelid world was full of animals which were equally gorgeous as my ferrets but the whole species (apart from otters perhaps) were totally misunderstood and always considered to be the bad guys
They get such a bad rap because they’re carnivores and I honestly hope that my site will change the thinking when people see that mustelids can make super little pets.  Think Weezie, think Emo.
Ferrets, or any of their cousins, aren’t pets for everyone, that’s for sure, but I do hope that slowly, (and that probably will be VERY slowly), people will see that the different types of mustelids aren’t vicious, bloody thirsty animals but are, in fact, super little animals.
Now all we have to do is to convince the California Fish & Game people of that, amongst others …..!!!!
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