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The European polecat's closest relatives are the steppe polecat and black-footed ferret, with which it is thought to have shared Mustela stromeri as a common ancestor. The European polecat is, however, not as maximally adapted in the direction of carnivory as the steppe polecat, being less specialised in skull structure and dentition.
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 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 ...
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.
Steppe polecat: Southeast Europe and Northern Asia Southern Asia Mustela furo Linnaeus, 1758: Domestic ferret: Domestic Worldwide (domesticated); New Zealand (non-native) Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758: European polecat: Europe, North Africa and Northern Asia Mustela nigripes (Audubon and Bachman, 1851) Black-footed ferret: North America
Today, some mustelids are threatened for other reasons. Sea otters are vulnerable to oil spills and the indirect effects of overfishing; the black-footed ferret, a relative of the European polecat, suffers from the loss of American prairie; and wolverine populations are slowly declining because of habitat destruction and persecution.
Heads of a 1) polecat, 2) ferret and 3) polecat–ferret hybrid. A polecat–ferret hybrid is a hybrid between a wild European polecat (Mustela putorius) and a domesticated ferret (Mustela furo). Offspring of such a cross between the two animals typically have a distinct white throat patch, white feet and white hairs interspersed among the fur. [1]
The steppe polecat's closest relatives are the European polecat and black-footed ferret, with which it is thought to have shared Mustela stromeri as a common ancestor. [7] The steppe polecat likely diverged from the European polecat 1.5 million years ago based on IRBP, though cytochrome b transversions indicate a younger date of 430,000 years. [8]