Keeps 403 Posted August 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2012 For those interested in the polecat, I had another email back from the Wildlife Trust: Via a colleague we’ve been in touch with a man called Johnny Birks, who is recognised as a national authority on polecats, pine martins etc. His view on your animal and DNA testing is below. I’m sorry to say I don’t believe there is any reliable DNA test to separate polecats from polecat-ferrets; the two forms are simply too closely related (and interbred over many years) for such a thing to be possible. Looking at the photo of the animal, its head looks very polecat-like, but the body looks too pale to be a true polecat in summer pelage. It would seem that the latest view is that polecat-ferrets are for all intents and purposes polecats. The ferret was domesticated from wild polecats, and the two are basically the same animal. The polecat-ferret can interbreed with a polecat and after a few generations what you have is genetically the same as a polecat as makes no difference. In summary, there’s no need to DNA test the animal, and it is as near a polecat as makes no difference - so, as far as I can see there’s no problem with saying it’s a polecat. With your permission I’d like to publish some of your pictures in out winter magazine. Would that be ok? Sooo it looks as if there is no point in having him DNA testing at at. Quote Link to post
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