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The ferret (Mustela furo) is a small, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (Mustela putorius), as evidenced by the ferret's ability to interbreed with European polecats and produce hybrid offspring. Physically, ferrets resemble other mustelids because ...
The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), also known as the American polecat [4] or prairie dog hunter, [5] is a species of mustelid native to central North America. The black-footed ferret is roughly the size of a mink and is similar in appearance to the European polecat and the Asian steppe polecat. It is largely nocturnal and solitary ...
The black-footed ferret is entirely dependent on another keystone species, the prairie dog. A family of four ferrets eats 250 prairie dogs in a year; this requires a stable population of prairie dogs from an area of some 500 acres (2.0 km 2 ).
The bird flu virus strain that infected a Texas dairy farm worker in March was lethal to ferrets in experiments designed to mimic the disease in humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and ...
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The modern classification arose in 1982 when Phillip M. Youngman placed the black-footed ferret into Putorius. [3] The ancestor of modern polecats and ferrets and earliest true polecat is considered to be Mustela stromeri, a smaller species whose size indicated polecats evolved at a late period.
Across much of the U.S., ferrets at your local pet store are bred by mass breeding companies while many ferret owners also acquire their pets from private breeders. Humans have long loved ferrets ...
The varying geography of Texas, the second largest state, provides a large variety of habitats for mammals. The land varies from swamps , Piney Woods in the east , rocky hills and limestone karst in the central Hill Country of the Edwards Plateau , desert in the south and west , mountains in the far west (the Trans-Pecos ), and grassland ...