Ferret History

Ferrets and Man
Ferrets in Folklore
Ferrets in Research

Ferrets and Man

Ferrets have been used primarily for vermin control or hunting small game animals since they first were domesticated.

The earliest reference to an animal that was clearly a ferret is in the writings of Plinius, which he calls "Viverra." During the reign of Caesar Augustus, the Balearic Islands, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, had become infested with rabbits released by colonists as game animals and posed a serious threat to the crops. Help was requested from Rome and the Emporer sent several shiploads of "Viverrae." These were released in the rabbits' warrens and drove the rabbits into the hunters' nets, making quick work of the infestation.

With the Moslem conquest of Spain in the 8th century, ferrets became known to the Arabs and spread through the more temperate parts of the Moslem world under the name "Furo." These little beasts were prized by the elite for their exceptional hunting ability, as were hawks. It was relatively common for ferrets to be released into the underbrush to flush out game birds which the falcons would bring down.

The return of the Crusaders through Italy and Byzantium, brought a new hunting associate to Western and Central Europe. Having found ferrets living in palaces and granaries to control the ubiquitos mice and rats in southern Europe and the Near and Middle East, the knights brought along and introduced ferrets to their manor houses for much the same purposes: Live-in rat-catchers and rabbit-hunting companions. They were so accepted as residents of great homes that DaVinci painted one as the companion to a noble woman in "Lady with Ermine" (now in the Czartoryski Museum, Krakow), though the ferret has been named an "ermine" as would better befit a noble Lady. Gradually ferrets spread throughout Europe and became common farm animals, used mainly as vermin control in barns and granaries. Ferrets would remain the primary rodent catcher in Europe until the late eighteenth century, when cats, no longer be considered to be the consort of the devil, would usurp this role.

Ferrets were replaced mostly by cats because whole ferrets stink to high heaven and cats don't (spay and neuter is a 20th century device), whole ferrets are not as friendly as cats, and it was much easier to control the activities of cats due to their larger size. So, with the passing of superstition, the cat became the more acceptable rat slayer / companion animal.

However, ferrets maintained their place in the rural areas where a more reliable hunting companion than a cat was needed. Even today working ferrets are kept on European farms. Ferrets have become one of the primary tools associated with poachers. The archtype of the poacher wears a baggy trenchcoat to hide his brace of birds or rabbits, carrying one or two ferrets in bag or inside pocket, a net and snare in the pockets, a short-barrelled shotgun strapped in, and he is accompanied by a Jack Russell terrier.

In this century, ferrets have been put to other uses. In the forties and fifties in the USA and Canada, they were bred and raised for their fur which was used in making fake mink coats, a business now happily ended. The fluffier ferrets found in your household today are likely descendents of these animals.

Other industrial applications of ferret skills have been the stringing of electrical and telephone cables. As recently as the late 1960's, Boeing Aircraft Corporation in Seattle and British Columbia Telephones used ferrets to lay the guidewires for pulling the heavier cables through conduits. (Just think, that jet plane you flew in may have been ferret strung.) This practice ended because ferrets, being the contrary little critters they are, would often just stop in the middle of a conduit and take a nap.

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Ferrets In Folklore

If you are bitten on the neck by a ferret, you will become one of the undead. (Central and Eastern European tradition)

Drinking the remaining milk from a dish a ferret has lapped from and you will be cured of the whooping cough. (British and Irish tradition)

So, most ferret owners are very healthy vampires!

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Ferrets in Research

The following is an excerpt from a listing of animals used for research.

Uncommonly Used Laboratory Animals

Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Mustela vison New World Mink
Mustela putorius furo Domestic Ferret
Mephitis mephitis Striped Skunk

Mustela putorius furo - Domestic Ferret

2N=34; tolerate cold better than heat; G 41-43 D; breeding season dependent on photoperiod- 14 hours daylight; female induced ovulator & will stay in heat for 4 months if not bred and can cause fatal bone marrow depression due to high estrogens; pseudopregnancy lasts 42 days; young called kits females called jills, males, Hob; 2 litters/season; colors: fitch, albino, siamese, silver, silver mitt; can't digest fiber; Dental formula 3/3,1/1,4/3,1/2; aorta splits forming carotids and abdominal aorta; endothelial-chorial placenta; five toes on each foot; male urine is usually dark; testicle descend during breeding season.

Diseases: very susceptible to canine distemper 100% fatal naso-ocular discharge with "hard pad"; botulism; C. fetus jejuni causing proliferative ileitis; as well as: TB, salmonellosis, influenza, Aleutian disease, rotavirus; eclampsia in pregnant females Tx by feeding raw liver.

Research Uses: bacteriological, virological, teratological, pharmacological, endocrinological, gastroenterological, & reproduction; used as sentinel for canine distemper in dog kennels; Model for subacute sclerosing panencephalitis caused by rubella; emetic research; congenital cerebellar hypoplasia with panleukopenia virus; Reye Syndrome- induced with human influenza virus + aspirin + arginine deficient diet; will also develop inner ear disorders (menier's disease/deafness).

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