ClaireC
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Patrick Wright looks for a San Diego legislator to defend his animal rights
Twister, your information is incorrect. Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are related to the European Polecat (Mustela putorius) in the same way that dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are related to wolves (Canis lupus). They have been domesticated for several thousand years, and have many color variations. Like many domesticated species, they are unsuccessful living in the wild. There are NO wild populations of M. p. furo, though there are some hybrid ferret/polecat colonies. (Wilson & Reeder, Mammals Species of the World, 3rd edition). Domestication involves genetic changes, and is entirely different from taming a wild animal. For example, ferrets often have a different number of chromosomes than polecats. Albinos (a genetic anomaly) are found in all species, wild or domestic. They occur more frequently in the domestic ferret because people have bred for that trait, but albino polecats are not ferrets, any more than an albino wolf is a dog. The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is native to North America and is an entirely different species. The head has an entirely different shape, so no, it is not hard to tell that the photo in the article is of a domesticated ferret. Your quotes refer to yet a third species, the Steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii). Some taxonomists have suggested that M. eversmanii is the same species, or at least closely related to M. nigripes, in the same way that taxonomists used to say that the Bonobo and the Chimpanzee are the same species (now we say they are different species). Whether M. nigripes and M. eversmanii are related or not, neither species is M. putorius, much less the domestic ferret M. p. furo.— May 18, 2012 9:39 a.m.