Ferrets

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Ferrets
Ferret (female with polecat color)

Ferret (female with polecat color)

Systematics
Superfamily : Marten relatives (Musteloidea)
Family : Marten (Mustelidae)
Genre : Mustela
Subgenus : Polecat ( putorius )
Type : European polecat ( Mustela putorius )
Subspecies : Ferrets
Scientific name
Mustela putorius furo
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The ferret ( Mustela putorius furo ), also Frett (from French furet , late Latin furetus , to Latin for "thief") is the domesticated form of the Mustela subgenus Putorius ( polecat ). It is most likely derived from the European polecat ( Mustela putorius ). Further assumptions give the steppe iltis a role in the development of the ferret.

features

The male animal (male) has a body length between 48 and 80 cm, with 13 to 19 cm on the tail. The body length of the female animal is between 42 and 60 cm, here the tail is about 11 to 14 cm. The female animal remains significantly smaller than the male.

The males reach a weight of 800 to well over 2000 g. Fähen weigh about 600 to 1000 g. The difference between summer and winter weight can be a third of their total weight, with the weight differences decreasing with age.

The basic coat color of the animals is predominantly whitish-yellow. The different shades of color of the individual animals are cultivated forms , including those that correspond to the coloring of the wild form , and also an albino form .

Life expectancy and diseases

Ferrets live to be around seven to ten years old, and in rare cases even older. Tumors are the main cause of death, for example in the adrenal gland , as an insulinoma or on other organs. The reason is sought, on the one hand, in uncontrolled breeding, in which unusual colors are often more important than the health of the animals, and on the other hand, changed living conditions (indoor housing, feeding, castration) seem to play their part. Studies in the USA suggest that adrenal tumors occur more frequently in indoor animals that experience an irregular and therefore unnatural light cycle. Adrenal gland disease may develop in ferrets after castration .

nutrition

Two ferrets on the hunt

Ferrets are carnivores , which, due to their anatomical features of the gastrointestinal tract, occupy a special position within the order of predators . Ferrets lack the appendix , in which cellulosic food can be digested, and they only have a very short colon . The length of the large intestine in ferrets is only about 5 percent of the total length of the gastrointestinal tract, while in dogs and cats , for example, the length of the colon is about 20 percent of the total length of the gastrointestinal tract. In ferrets, the ingested food passes through the entire digestive tract in three to four hours.

Due to these short digestion times, the organism does not have much time to absorb the nutrients broken down from the feed . Ferrets therefore need a diet that consists of 80 percent animal protein and only 20 percent vegetable protein , with the need for vegetable protein being covered by the stomach contents of the food animals or, in pet ownership, by the vegetable ingredients contained in the dry food. To avoid possible infection with Aujeszky's disease, which is fatal to ferrets , raw pork should not be fed.

history

Even the Greeks knew the ferret without keeping these animals themselves. Aristophanes mentioned the ferrets (ἰκτῖδας ἐνύδρως) in the Acharns . In the younger half of the 4th century BC, the ferret (the ἰκτίς ) was mentioned by Aristotle as a helper in the ferret hunt . Aristotle described these animals' fondness for honey and birds . In the 5th century AD, further Greek evidence can be found in the compilations of John Stobaios .

In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder latinized the Greek name to ictis and handed down the Roman fight against rabbits with the help of ferrets under the name viverra (nat. 8,218) . In addition to ictis and viverra there is the term furo , which is also used for polecat and marten, as in the encyclopedia etymologiae of Isidore of Seville . This root word is used for scientific nomenclature.

Women hunting rabbits with ferrets, Psalter, 1316–1321

A precise natural history description was only offered by Thomas von Cantimpré in the 13th century. A miniature of the Queen Mary Psalter (early 14th century) depicts a ferret hunt with female hunters.

With the help of these historical clues, the beginnings of the domestication of the fret in the Mediterranean area from Spanish or Egyptian polecat populations are suspected 2500 years ago.

A lexicon from the 19th century states that "the frett is only found wild in northern Africa". From there it spread across Europe via Spain and Italy.

attitude

Intensive contact with people can make ferrets very tame . Nowadays ferrets are mainly kept as pets. They need a lot of space, time and a balanced diet. Ferrets sleep around 14 to 18 hours a day, but not in a row.

If they are not used for breeding, ferrets are usually neutered . Otherwise, vixens in the Dauerranz come disturbed permanently whereby the hormonal balance. This can lead to premature death. Males, on the other hand, sometimes become very aggressive and mark their territory. In addition, uncastrated ferrets have a strong odor of their own, comparable to other uncastrated animals, which is why housing is only recommended for castrated ferrets.

As an alternative to surgical castration in male dogs in the EU the treatment since 2007 deslorelin ( Suprelorin ), a gonadotropin releasing hormone - agonists (gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, GnRH1 agonist) approved ( "chemical castration"). The implant with 9.4 mg Deslorelin develops its effect after 5 to 14 weeks, which lasts for 16 months.

Ferrets are one of those pets for which an EU pet passport must be carried when crossing the border within the EU , and which must have a chip implanted for identification.

use

Ferret trained for hunting in the hand of the hunter

For hunting purposes, their original use as pets, ferrets are rarely used today. When they are used for hunting , they are often used in conjunction with falconry . This form of hunting is called fretting . According to the Federal Hunting Act, ferret hunting, like any other form of hunting, is only permitted with a hunting license in Germany .

Ferrets are used in medical research for animal experiments , for example in laboratory experiments on the dangerous Influenza A virus H5N1 and a new Influenza A virus H7N7 variant, as they are considered to be a model organism for humans with regard to influenza .

Wild animals

In some areas where there are enough small prey and no wild polecats, ferrets have escaped and become wild animals, for example in Sardinia , Sicily or New Zealand . The animals released into the wild have caused such damage to the local fauna in New Zealand that private keeping of ferrets has been banned.

However, it has not been proven that the animals there are really ferrets and not re-crossed hybrids, since European polecats were also released in New Zealand at the same time as the ferrets. It is generally assumed that ferrets do not build up their own wild populations, but rather mix with locally resident polecats. This is also an important argument against the partial ban on ferrets in some US states such as California.

In Germany, abandoned ferrets have little chance of survival. Due to their short intestines , they have to prey in the form of a mouse or similarly large prey every two to three hours . The hunting instinct that is still present is usually insufficient for survival.

literature

Web links

Commons : Iltisse  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Ferret  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ True, Dt. Dictionary, 9th edition. 2011
  2. ↑ a b General German Real Encyclopedia for the educated classes. Conversations lexicon in fifteen volumes . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1853. Here: Volume 6, Page 357
  3. ↑ The Brockhaus in ten volumes . Volume 3, page 1917. F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 2005. ISBN 3-7653-2453-1
  4. ↑ Michael Fehr, Anja Ewringmann, Martina Warsaw: Ferret: Heimtier und Patient , Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2014, p. 46
  5. ↑ See the short article Iltis and Ferret by Christian Hünemörder in: Der Neue Pauly. Published by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester: Brill Online December 19, 2012. See Pauly-Wissowa # RE .
  6. ↑ Acharnes 845. The comedy received 425 BC. First prize at the Lenées
  7. ↑ Pape Greek-German hand dictionary cites as references in Aristotle HA 9.6 and Nic. Th. 196 (not checked)
  8. ↑ Gaii Plinii Secundi naturalis historiae libri XXXVII, 29.60
  9. ↑ fūro, furōnis, m., The polecat, the ferret, Italian furetto, reference: Isid orig. 12, 2, 39.
  10. ^ Christian Hünemörder : Thomas von Cantimpré. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . From the same more precise information also in the New Pauly
  11. ↑ Fox, JG, RC Pearson, JA Bell: Taxonomy, history and use of ferrets. In Biology and Diseases of the Ferret. 2nd Edition, Fox JG Editor, William & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1996, pp. 3-170.
  12. ↑ See also rut . A good explanation can be found for the time being with the Lower Austrian ferret friends
  13. ↑ European Medicines Agency: Suprelorin - Deslorelin ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. EMA / 310418/2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.waldfrettchen.de
  14. ↑ See Wolfgang Müller / Frank Herrmann / Dieter Herrmann: Praxis der Kommunalverwaltung , D 7 Th, Further factual prohibitions in addition to the BJagdG , Kommunal- und Schul-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010.
  15. ↑ Tommy Tsan-Yuk Lam: The genesis and source of the H7N9 influenza viruses causing human infections in China. In: Nature. Online advance publication of August 21, 2013, doi: 10.1038 / nature12515
  16. ↑ H7N7 viruses: The new avian flu has a potentially dangerous relative. In: zeit.de of August 21, 2013, accessed on August 27, 2013.
  17. ↑ Ferrets as virus model animals? - Institute checks risk of infection from animals , on n-tv.de/wissen from March 20, 2020
  18. ↑ Martina Rathke: Institute begins the fight against deadly pathogens , on n-tv.de/wissen from August 14, 2013
  19. ↑ Harry V. Thompson and Carolyn M. King (editors): The European Rabbit: The History and Biology of a Successful Colonizer. 1994