Abstract

Ferrets (Mustela furo) were domesticated from polecats (M. putorius, M. eversmannii) over 2000 years ago. Following their introduction to Britain, they escaped and hybridized with native European polecats (M. putorius). Native polecats declined to the point of near extinction prior to World War I, but have recently begun to expand from a Welsh refugium. Concern has arisen as to the extent of polecat/ferret introgression, and in particular, whether the expanding population is of mainly hybrid origin. Therefore, mitochondrial DNA sequencing was used to investigate polecat genetic diversity in Britain. Two geographically distinct lineages were found, where one may be ancestral to the British polecat, and the other to the domestic ferret. The ancestral distribution of each lineage, or assortative mating is sufficient to explain the observed pattern. A further comparison between the distribution of the polecat phenotype and mitochondrial haplotype implies that the current population expansion may be mediated by dispersing male polecats hybridizing with female feral ferrets. However, the wild source of the ferret remains obscure. Relatively recent speciation from European mink (M. lutreola) and black-footed ferrets (M. nigripes), and/or the effects of hybridization result in an unresolved molecular phylogeny.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320798000676

Abstract

To illuminate molecular phylogenetic relationships among Eurasian species of the genus Mustela (Mustelidae, Carnivora), we determined nucleotide sequences of the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene region (1,140 base pairs). Molecular phylogenetic trees, constructed using the neighbor-joining and the maximum likelihood methods, showed the common topology of species relationships to each other. The American mink M. vison first branched off and was positioned very remotely from the other species of Mustela. Excluding M. vison, the ermine M. erminea first split from the rest of the species. Two small body-sized weasels, the least weasel M. nivalis and the mountain weasel M. altaica, comprised one cluster (named “the small weasel group”). The other species formed another cluster, where the remarkably close relationships among the domestic ferret M. furo, the European polecat M. putorius, and the steppe polecat M. eversmanni were noticed with 87–94% bootstrap values (named “the ferret group”), supporting the history that the ferret was domesticated from M. putorius and/or M. eversmanni. The European mink M. lutreola was the closest to the ferret group. The genetic distance between the Siberian weasel M. sibirica and the Japanese weasel M. itatsi corresponded to differences of interspecific level, while the two species were relatively close to M. lutreola and the ferret group. These results provide invaluable insight for understanding the evolution of Mustela as well as for investigating the hybridization status between native and introduced species for conservation.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2108/zsj.17.673

The animal remains from Deventer (8th-19th centuries AD) GF IJzereef, F Laarman - Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig …, 1986

~~~

van Damme D, and Ervynck, A, 1988 Medieval ferrets and

rabbits in the castle of Laarne (East-Flanders, Belgium); a

contribution to the history of a predator and its prey, Helinium, 28, 278–284

~~~

Owen, Clifford, "The domestication of the ferret." In Ucko, P J, and Dimbleby, G.W, (eds) 1969 The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals, Duckworth, London (2009 reprint excerpted and pasted below).

Chapter The animal bones

 ABSTRACT

To further understand the phylogenetic relationships among the mustelid genus Mustela, we newly determined nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene from 11 Eurasian species of Mustela, including the domestic ferret and the American mink. Phylogenetic relationships inferred from the 12S rRNA sequences were similar to those based on previously reported mitochondrial cytochrome b data. Combined analyses of the two genes demonstrated that species of Mustela were divided into two primary clades, named “the small weasel group” and “the large weasel group”, and others. The Japanese weasel (Mustela itatsi) formerly classified as a subspecies of the Siberian weasel (M. sibirica), was genetically well-differentiated from M. sibirica, and the two species clustered with each other. The European mink (M. lutreola) was closely related to “the ferret group” (M. furo, M. putorius, and M. eversmanii). Both the American mink of North America and the back-striped weasel (M. strigidorsa) of Southeast Asia were more closely related to each other than to other species of Mustela, indicating that M. strigidorsa originated from an independent lineage that differs from other Eurasian weasels. Based on biochemical, cytogenetic, and molecular differences as well as morphological evidence, it is proposed that the American mink be elevated to a distinct mustelid genus, Neovison.

Mammal Study 33(1):25-33. 2008

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3106/1348-6160(2008)33[25:MPATOT]2.0.CO;2

 Molecular phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Mustela (Mustelidae, Carnivora), inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences: New perspectives on phylogenetic status of the back-striped weasel and American mink

Naoko Kurose1, Alexei V. Abramov2, Ryuichi Masuda3*

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University, Kanagawa 259-1293, Japan

2 Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg 199034, Russia

3 Creative Research Initiative “Sousei”, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3106/1348-6160(2008)33%5B25:MPATOT%5D2.0.CO%3B2

"There is also a species of hare, in Spain, which is called the rabbit; it is extremely prolific, and produces famine in the Balearic islands, by destroying the harvests ... It is a well-known fact that the inhabitants of the Balearic islands begged of the late Emperor Augustus the aid of a number of soldiers, to prevent the too rapid increase of these animals. The ferret is greatly esteemed for its skill in catching them. It is thrown into the burrows, with their numerous outlets, which the rabbits form, and from which circumstance they derive their name (cuniculus), and as it drives them out they are taken above."

~ Pliny, 1st century AD; translated by Bostock & Riley, 1855, II, p. 349 [see quoted at link below] 

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cgL-EbbB8a0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=ferret+domestication&ots=gGbm1buu5V&sig=lqiseivECl0v3c62n1NWJS7x50Y#v=onepage&q=ferret&f=false

Illustrated 14th-century manuscript in the National Library of France:

Titre : Gaston Phébus, Livre de la chasse. — Gace de la Buigne, Déduits de la chasse.

Date d'édition : 1301-1500

Type : manuscrit

Langue : français

Format : Vélin. - Miniatures, lettres ornées

Description : 1° « Livre de la chasce, que fist le conte [GASTON] PHEBUS DE FOYS, seigneur de Beart ». Commençant par : « Ou non et en l'onneur de Dieu, createur et seigneur de toutes choses, et de son benoist filz Jhesu Christ... » et finissant par : «... tant de bien en cest monde et en l'autre comme il meismes vouldroit ».2° « Plusieurs bonnes Oroysons en latin et en françoys » (fol. 122). Commençant par : « Adonay domine deus omnipotens, qui fecisti ex solo verbo tuo... » et finissant par : «... qui vis et regnes puissaument par tout le siecle des siecles. Amen » .3° Les Déduits de la chasse [par GACE DE LA BUIGNE] (fol. 139). Commençant par : « Entens cy qui veulx savoir Des faulcons et les veulx avoir... » et finissant par : « Si s'en vont, à Dieu les command. « A tant je fine mon roman » .

Droits : domaine public

Identifiant : ark:/12148/btv1b52505055c

Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français 616

Provenance : Bibliothèque nationale de France

Date de mise en ligne : 23/03/2015

[The link below takes you directly to the page of the illustration copied below, however a PDF of the complete illustrated manuscript, in high-resolution colour, may be downloaded at this same link]:

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52505055c/f29.image

[see quotation in following post, below, that describes the illustrated activity]

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52505055c/f29.image

Tapestry: "Peasants hunting rabbits with ferrets," in Burrell Collection, Glasgow, Scotland. Made in France in 15th-century of wool and silk. One of three (others in Louvre, & M.H. Young Museum, San Francisco). NOTE: the ferret depicted in the tapestry is the white or albino domesticated ferret, accurately depicted with its characteristic red [pink] eyes.

A [14th-century] quote translated from Phebus (see first link above) describes the activity depicted in the tapestry:

"Fine nets are put over the rabbit holes and a ferret is sent down the only one left free (open); he wears a muzzle so that he can't kill the rabbits, eat them and appear days later after sleeping it off. Disturbed by the smell of the ferret, the rabbits rush up into the nets where slaughter and a place in the stew await them."

NOTE: faunal remains of ferrets have been recovered from some medieval-aged European archaeological sites (I forget which, specifically) with the canine teeth having been (intentionally) snapped-off or filed-down ... it being hypothesized that these were other methods (in lieu of, or addition to, muzzling ?) to prevent the ferret from killing the rabbits. It goes without saying that anytime filed-down ferret teeth should be found in an archaeological context, this doubtlessly would indicate a domesticated ferret.

Perhaps the latest summary on what is known (unknown ?) about the domestication of the ferret ...

     "Cuniculus [rabbit] next appears in the works of Roman writers of about the first century B.C. Posidonius of Aparnea, historian and philosopher of the beginning of that century, mentioned it in his History (as quoted by Athanaeus, Deiphnosophiste, Bk. ix.); the poet Catullus (Carmina, xxxvii., 18) sang of Spain as a country full of rabbits and rabbit holes: - "Tu ... cuniculosae Celtiberiae fili egnati;" and Martial (Epigrammata, xiii., 60) aptly described it in the lines "Gaudet in effossis habitare cuniculus antris." Varro (op. cit. supra, p. 178), who flourished between 116 and 27 B.C., states that it was found in Spain, and discusses the derivation of its name. The geographer Strabo (Bohn Library, I, 217), who was born about 63 B.C., notices (Geographica, Bk. iii., c. 2, para 6; Hamilton and Falconer's translation) its abundance in the Balearic Islands1, as well as in almost the whole of Iberia (Spain); it extended to Marseilles, "infesting likewise the islands" and destroying both seeds and trees, the latter by gnawing their roots. He states that the inhabitants of the Balearics once despatched an embassy to the Romans to beg for a new land to dwell in, as they were quite driven out of their country by these animals, being no longer able to stand against the vast multitudes. Amongst the many methods of hunting those little hares was that by γαλᾱς άγῤἰας from Africa trained for the purpose, where the Greek words are usually translated “wild cats.” The meaning of  γαλᾱς is, however, uncertain; the passage looks like an early description of ferrets, but there is the difficulty that the Polecat or wild form of Ferret is unknown in Africa. Pliny (about A.D. 23-79) added that the deputation from the Balearic Islands was sent to the Emperor Augustus to demand a military force, apparently to assist in destroying the rabbits, and much the same story was repeated by Aelian (op. cit. supra, p. 178), the exact date of whose writings is uncertain.

          The animal [cuniculus or rabbit] was evidently regarded by the Romans as peculiarly characteristic of Spain. It appears on Romano-Spanish coins of Hadrian (who was emperor from 117 to 138 A.D.), examples of which are in the British Museum; one is figured by Cohen, Monnaies Frappees sous l’Empire Romain, 2nd ed., vol. ii., 175, No. 821. There is also a marble group, again of the second century, in the British Museum (No. 1764), supposed to personify the Province of Spain, and which includes a boy, a woman, and a rabbit in a basket. This has been figured and described by Michelle Jatta, Le Rappresentanze Figurate Delle Provincie Romaine, 1908, fig. 10, 41."

~~~

Gerald E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, A history of British mammals, Part X. (27 Feb 1912), pp 181-182.

https://archive.org/details/historyofbritish22barr

Bob, you may be interested that there's quite a problem with mink in the UK. Certainly at the northern border of England with Wales.

For the Roman period, Pliny, Natural History, Bk 8: 219, quoted by Bob appears in the Loeb series, LCL 353, with translation by H. Rackham, 1940:

... certum est Baliaricos adversus proventum eorum auxilium militare a divo Augusto petisse. magna propter venatum eum viverris gratia est: iniciunt eas in specus qui sunt multifores in terra (unde et nomen animali) atque ita eiectos superne capiunt.

'It is an established fact that the peoples of the Balearics petitioned the late lamented Augustus for military assistance against the spread of these animals. The ferret is extremely popular for rabbit-hunting; they throw ferrets into the burrows with a number of exits that the rabbits tunnel in the ground (this is the derivation of their name ‘cony’a and so catch the rabbits when they are driven out to the surface...........'

a Actually the word cuniculus ‘rabbit’ is of Iberian origin, but the relationship to it of cuniculus ‘tunnel’ is obscure (cf. Walde, LEW3 I, 308).

I haven't read it, but see also,

A History of the Ferret, by A. P. D. Thomson,Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Vol. 6, No. 4 (Autumn 1951), pp. 471-480

Ferret (an expert mouse-catcher) listed as a precious gift brought by Persian ambassadors to the Han Emperor (638 A.D.)

Some notes on ancient sources for the study of ferret domestication ...

An 1881 call for experimentation attempting to domesticate the black-footed ferret (Putorius nigripes); this ferret was first discovered by Audubon in the American Rocky Mountains [see following post], in 1851.

Native American tribes, including the Crow, Blackfoot, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Pawnee, used black-footed ferrets for religious rites and for food.

The species was not encountered during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, nor was it seen by the naturalists Nuttall or Townsend, and it was not until it was first described in Audubon and Bachman's Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America in 1851 [see excerpt in following post] that it became known to the scientific world.

The black-footed ferret was apparently never domesticated before it was almost driven into extinction in-the-wild due to the dramatic decline (eradication) of the prairie-dog ... it's major prey. At least 18 viable populations of wild black-footed ferrets have been re-introduced throughout its original range in the western states, through the restoration work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (in association with its work in restoration and protection of the prairie-dog).

A USFWS pamphlet on the black-footed ferret is at the 3rd link below: 

https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/factsheets/black-footed-ferret.pdf

Excerpt of Audubon's 1851 description of Putorius nigripes [with his coloured plate] ...

hello, in the net i have find a homepage of www.frettchen-hilfe.de (in german).

They provide some data (unfortunately not showing whic are the sources they took the information given there9.

Strabo (69 AD) talks about the use of ferrets to hunt rabbits. Pliny the Elder says that Augustus sent ferrets to the Balearic Islands to fight rabbits. and final a law from 1390 (where) specifies, that keeping ferrets was only allowed to persons disposing of a certain wealth.

Some domesticated ferret behavior [interaction with domesticated duck] reported ...

"We had,” says Dr. Huvier, “a very tame ferret, which, for its gentleness, was caressed by all our ladies; it was most of its time on their knees. One day when we were in the saloon, a servant entered, holding in his hand a tame duck, which he let loose on the floor; the ferret immediately darted after the duck, which no sooner perceived it, than he squatted his whole length; the ferret fell upon him, and sought to bite his neck and head; in an instant the duck stretched out his body, and figured [assumed a posture of] death; the ferret then smelled the bird from the head to the foot, and perceiving no signs of life, it left the body, and returned to us: the duck now seeing his enemy retire, rose gently on his toes, seeking to get up [on] his feet; but the ferret, surprised at this resurrection, ran and threw him down, and did the same a third time. Several days in succession we amused ourselves by repeating this little spectacle; I cannot sufficiently express the sort of intelligence perceived in the conduct of the duck; scarcely had he extended his head and his neck on the floor, and [thereby, feigning death] had got rid of the ferret, than he began to trail [swivel] his head in such manner as to be able to examine the proceedings of his enemy; then he raised his head gently and repeatedly, took to his feet, and fled swiftly; the ferret returned to the charge, and the duck played again the same trick.”

~~~

W. P. Cocks, “Contributions to the Falmouth Fauna, 1857 : Geese, Ducks &c., in Falmouth and neighborhood,” The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, Twenty-fifth Annual Report (1857), p. 81.

~~~

NOTE: This anecdotal account suggests it was common practice to either remove, or file-down, the canine teeth of domesticated ferrets kept as pets, else the duck would not have survived a single attack, much less repeated ones [Skiles].

Natural history of domesticated ferrets & behavior described (mid-19th-century England) ... domesticated ferret contrasted with [undomesticated] "polecat-ferret" [hybrid ?] ...

Semi-domesticated polecats (ferrets ?) of Europe described in Count Buffon's Natural History ... 1812

Excellent engravings [& so-so descriptions] (by John Beugo ca. 1801) contrasting the [wild] polecat with the [domesticated] ferret ...

Mademoiselle de Laistre's description of the behaviour (and method of taming) of her tamed weasel (ferret ?) [related by the naturalist Buffon, it has probably been repeated in, or formed the basis for, a thousand children's stories / books over the past two centuries] ...

Buffon's mid-18th-century descriptions (1848 reprint with coloured plates) of the European weasel, polecat and ferret.

 Thank you very much for all of your answers !! I'm going to go through all of this sources !