Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Carnivorans | Tagged ferret, polecat | 7 Comments

7 Responses

1. on July 26, 2014 at 8:01 pm Paddyannie

   Male ferrets are much bigger than female ferrets, so it is common for well fed male kits to become larger than their mum after a few months. The males also have bigger heads.

   Perhaps, someone counted the pads on the kit’s feet but counted the claws on the feet the next time? Ferrets have different pads on the soles of their feet than what cats and dogs do. Look at a normal ferret’s foot bottom, it looks like extra pads compared to a dog’s foot bottom.

   
   
   • on July 26, 2014 at 8:18 pm retrieverman

     Extreme sexual dimorphism is pretty common in mustelids, but there are no feral colonies of pure domestic ferret anywhere in the world. Even the New Zealand feral ferrets are all hybrids with European polecat.

     Dogs are unusual among the Caniformia because they have only four toes per foot (minus dewclaws). Even bears have have five toes that touch the ground. Of Caniformia, only dogs have evolved to be true cursorial predators, and thus, their feet have evolved to be digitigrade and have fewer digits touching the ground.

     I have no idea what these ferreters were looking at when they saw the extra toes.

     
     
2. on July 27, 2014 at 3:48 am BorderWars

   The 7 toes thing is lame. It’s a trick of the photo.

   Pause the video and notice that you’re actually looking at BOTH of the animal’s feet. The animal’s right leg is aligned at the bottom and moves horizontally and two toes from this leg appear on the far right of the toes.

   The animals’ left leg is in the center coming down at us and we see all 5 toes form this leg, IN FRONT of the foot from the other leg.

   No 7 toes on one foot. Just a trick of the photograph. I doubt the guys saw this in person, because that horrible photo is blurry and motion blurred and low res and a bad angle and that just contributes to the illusion that there are two extra toes pointing off in a funny direction.

   
   
   • on July 27, 2014 at 7:40 am retrieverman

     That’s what I thought.

     You can get some weird traits pop up when you hybridize between species (and yes, there is a bit of debate as to whether domestic ferrets are domestic European polecats– though I think they are).

     I saw a video of what were wild F1 coydogs, and their skulls showed they had missing teeth– the teeth never formed in the first place.

     I thought that maybe something like this had happened, but I was very skeptical of the photo.

     (I just needed someone else’s eyes to confirm it. LOL).

     
     
     • on July 27, 2014 at 7:58 am BorderWars

       Listen to the video again, even the two guys are talking about what they saw IN THE PHOTO, not in real life.

       
       
       • on July 27, 2014 at 8:12 am retrieverman

         Not surprised…at all.

         
         
3. on July 27, 2014 at 8:55 pm Paddyannie

   People enjoy feeling that there is magic and common unknown things in the world around them. Be it bigfoot or Mothman or thylacines remaining in Tazmania, people get a thrill from the idea. Harry Potter is about magic, strange beasts, flying brooms and casting spells- – look how popular Harry is.

   This is not the same as the spiritual feeling that people get from nature. It isn’t related to true belief in anything. It is more of a wondering, a not knowing which or what might be real.

   
   

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