From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-08-31 19:00:45 UTC
Subject: RE: Bob C: Ferret Caretaker Quiz
To: angela@ort.org, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, rrc961@mizzou.edu
Message-Id: <p05111701b996be100cec@[192.168.1.102]>
Re: ages: I have for two decades now seen many claims that British
ferrets are healthier and live longer, but over and over when folks
have kept actual records what seems to show up are:
1. the lifespans are pretty well the same for the mode (typical) age
range at death, with each grouping having sporadic individuals who
live to be as old as around 14 (just as some humans live to be as old
as 120, but we all know that most leave us in their 70s or 80s).
2. the British ferrets get sick as often but the distribution of
illnesses seems to be different in some regards. I think that part
of what plays into this is that so many U.S. people are on the
internet (with U.S. users comprising something like 40% of internet
users worldwide if I recall something I recently read recently
correctly and if it was right -- Steve thinks that it is less but
still a higher percentage than in other countries; okay, Steve found
a number and in 2001 U.S. users were 1/3 of internet users world-wide
and by 2005 are projected to be 1/5 since new users are growing at a
faster rate elsewhere, so that still leaves the proportions skewed
when perceptions are acquired) and I think that even a greater
portion of U.S. users utilize many of the global internet ferret
resources so the effect is that reports take on a greater
significance than they should and seem to represent more people than
they actually do. Plus, people are more inclined to get on when
something is wrong sompared to when something is right. It's the
same effect as when folks in much of the U.S. go batty over West Nile
Disease (We have relatives in Montana who are freaked about a man in
Minnesota and sure it will kill them.), when it is a disease that has
killed only a very few people, and which many other areas, including
parts of Mediterranean Europe are used to having go through in sweeps
(yet I can't recall the same now-freaking people not vacationing
there...). (Yet, people don't freak over influenza which kills far,
far more because they are so used to it that it isn't all over the
news.)
I guess that both points are that perceptions don't necessarily mesh
with numbers.
BTW, we have not found any negative aspects to always having food
available for our ferrets. It IS a good idea to use what has been
adapted for as a guideline for what to try, but not everything in the
ancestral past will prove to be of critical significance in any given
species once tested.