Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
In 1877, American historian Elliott Coues split the Putorius into multiple subgenuses and reclassified only the European polecat, domestic ferret and steppe polecat into Putorius. The black-footed ferret, which had features of Putorius and Gale (a subgenus split from Putorius ), was put into its own subgenus Cynomyonax . [ 2 ]
The European wildcat is the smallest of Europe’s cats and is a subspecies of the African wildcat, which is thought to be the ancestor of domestic breeds. European wildcats are found in the ...
Domestication is a gradual process, so there is no precise moment in the history of a given species when it can be considered to have become fully domesticated. Zooarchaeology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, hamsters, etc.) Livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)
The European polecat originated in Western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, with its closest living relatives being the steppe polecat, the black-footed ferret and the European mink. With the two former species, it can produce fertile offspring, [ 11 ] though hybrids between it and the latter species tend to be sterile, and are ...
While not nearly as popular as cats and dogs, ferrets also love human attention and can do many of the same cute tricks. An American Veterinary Medical Association survey from 2021 found .1% of ...
Domesticated ferrets kept as pets are not native to the U.S., but black-footed ferrets have been part of the American prairie ecosystem for about 100,000 years, according to fossil records, and ...
European polecat. Polecat is a common name for several mustelid species in the order Carnivora and subfamilies Ictonychinae [1] and Mustelinae. Polecats do not form a single taxonomic rank (i.e. clade). The name is applied to several species with broad similarities to European polecats, such as having a dark mask-like marking across the face.