David Northwood age 8, Westview, B.C.,
What kind of animal is a polecat?
Our Mr. Skunk is sometimes called a polecat. But this nickname is borrowed from a distant cousin who lives in Europe and parts of Africa, Both have musk glands and can foul up the air when annoyed, This could explain the borrowed nickname. The two cousins do not look alike or act alike. Yet both belong to the most expensively dressed family of animals in the world. They are cousins of the mink, the ermine the otter and the martins
The old world polecat is a ferret. He acts like a weasel and looks like a weasel. Tie is a bloodthirsty meat eater. His long, slender body is quick and graceful as a cat. The first part of his nickname came from poule, the French word for chicken. Drop one letter and add cat, Mr polecat earned his name as a chicken thief. He is also one of the world’s best ratters ,
This fact was noted thousands of years ago. Even in Roman days, certain polecat ferrets were trained to help with rat and rabbit hunting. Trained ferrets were part of farm life in Asia over 2000 years ago. Many a country boy in England still keeps a couple of caged ferrets to help keep down the rat and rabbit population.
These are handsome, highly bred animals. Their graceful bodies are slightly smaller than their wild weasel cousins. They have thick soft coats and bushy tails. Some are dark brown or tan. The favorite color is a , delicate, honey blond. The sharp teeth and hungry red eyes suggest the fierce characters of these beautiful animals.
For these reasons, the little furies have never been tamed as real pets. They are kept in strong cages, for those teeth can chew through soft metals. A boy must learn to handle his ferrets with care or they will bite his hands, He holds them firmly around the jaw to keep those sharp teeth closed.
In their cages, the restless ferrets are never still. They are forever trying to escape or take a bite from someone. This is strange, for, should the trained ferret escape, he soon perishes. Not, however, before he has left a trail of blood through the nearby chicken yards. The highly bred strains of ferret have been dependent on man so long that they can no longer cope with life in the wild. They have even forgotten how to use their musk glands. Trained ferrets never foul up the air,
When hunting, the little furies are carefully leashed and muzzled. The jaws are held together in a twine harness called a cope. Otherwise the ferrets would stop to devour the rats and rabbits in their burrows. Actually, they are used only to scare the hunted animals out into the open.
Before the hunts the farmer scouts for the various burrow openings, Someone is posted at each exit with a club or gun. Then a leashed polecat is allowed to slither down one burrow opening, The hunted animals flee in terror from this member of the dreaded weasel family. The farmer and his boys are waiting as they try to flee to safety through another exit.