So last week I made what was by far my most controversial video to date. I’m not new to
the internet by any means but the amount of hate I received was on a whole new level. Anyway,
I decided to just continue with that trend by making a video about a hunting and home defense
weapon that was so heavily regulated in medieval England that only rich, wealthy land-owners were allowed
to use it and it’s actually still illegal in a few states here in the US. Of course I’m talking
about the ferret.
[Intro music]
Ferrets were domesticated 2.5-3.5 thousand years ago in Europe for hunting rodents,
keeping rodents out of the home and garden,
and off of ships. That’s an important distinction and a common misconception.
Ferrets eat rodents. They are not rodents. Ferrets are the domesticated version of the
European polecat which is part of the mustelid family which is its own thing. Mustelids,
just like canines and felines, are all carnivores, rodents are not. Other members of the mustelid
family include weasels, badgers, otters, minks, wolverines, and apathetic honey badgers. The
North American black-footed ferret is also part of this family, but it’s not the wild version of
the pets that we keep today. Contrary to popular belief, mongooses… mongeese? [Tone] The mongoose
is similar in appearance and behavior, but it’s in a horribly named family all their own.
This is Wheatley, my five year old ferret. He’s been in most of my videos so far so
it’s only natural that he’d finally get his own. If you get the reference,
later... [GLaDOS: There will be cake] Like me, he is a pretty handsome middle-ager, in his prime.
Thank you very much. Ferrets typically live about 7-10 years. As you can see he has the
typical canine teeth of a savage killer. This is a duck. Wheatley has never seen a duck in real life,
so what I’m about to show you isn’t learned, it’s innate. Basic genetic stuff. Came with the BIOS.
Watch how he searches for and picks it up by the neck? Savage. This is
what ferrets were made for. Well, kind of. They came into common use for rabbit hunting,
creatively known as rabbiting or ferreting. There are stories dating back to the Roman
Empire of them being used for this purpose and it was common for them to be sent to new
colonies to help control the rabbit population. As I said in the beginning, they were also used
in medieval England for this. In fact, they were considered such a luxury item that in 1390
they made a law limiting their use in hunting. [In snooty English lord voice] It is ordained
that no manner of layman which hath not lands to the value of forty shillings a year shall
from henceforth keep any greyhound or other dog to hunt, nor shall he use ferrets to take or destroy
deer, hares, nor conies, nor other gentlemen's game, under pain of twelve months imprisonment.
I don’t know about you guys, but I would pay good money to see a pack of ferrets take
down a deer. Especially considering that one of the primary combat tactics of the
ferret [splashing] is the war dance. Specifically designed to confuse their enemy into disbelief.
Anyway, like in the medieval painting, ferrets were often sent down in rabbit holes and they
were preferred on ships over dogs and cats because they could get into the little nooks and crannies.
Also because they didn’t make any noise. Except for this little thing called a dook when they’re
excited, it’s kind of like their... [Splashing] It’s kind of like their version of a laugh.
[Adorable ferret noises]
The reason they do so well in the dark is their vision.
Ferrets are true-colorblind. They have rods and cones,
just like we do, but they only have one type of cone in the red end of the spectrum. That
doesn’t mean they see only in red though. They actually see the world like this. And while we can
say that this looks like shades of gray, we can’t ask them to know for sure. But we can ask people,
and there are people out there with only one cone. I plan on doing a full episode on color,
if not multiple, in the future. So for any of you psych majors out there, please don’t jump
at me for simplifying this for now. Most people have three cones. Most
colorblind people, and dogs, have two cones. And you need at least two cones in order to
perceive color. Having one cone will give you this grayscale type of vision. And having no
cones is actually so horrifying… well you’ll just have to stay tuned for the color episode.
Their use on ships and in rodent control is what eventually brought them to the US,
Australia, and New Zealand. Which is where most of the laws concerning their ownership
come into play. The primary worry was that if they ever got loose they could destroy the local
ecosystem because they’re so effective. Wheatley wouldn’t last a day in the wild much less destroy
an ecosystem. Because of that, they remain illegal in states like Hawaii and California,
and cities like New York. You’d think they’d welcome some sort of pest control but whatever.
They’re still used as rodent and pest control around the world today. Along with keeping the
pests out of ducts and pipes, they’re also used to lay wiring. Quite famously, at least in the
ferret community, Felicia the Fermilab Ferret is responsible for cleaning out the steel pipes
of the particle accelerator. And while it’s no longer common practice to keep ferrets on ships,
they do still serve in the military. Hell yeah!
Okay that was just the Ferret armored scout vehicle made by the British but it is still
used around the world today. Seriously though, ferrets are used for bomb-sniffing, as they
were in Iraq and at the London 7/7 bombings. A fairly controversial use for them though is in
the development of vaccines. Ferrets have a fairly comparable immune system to humans so literally
every flu shot you’ve ever gotten, including the swine flu vaccine, was developed on ferrets.
So while ferrets have finally overtaken rabbits as the third most popular pet in America,
you need to be careful. Cuz while you can’t give your dog or cat the flu that
you caught at work you can give it to your ferret. And given their size they
don’t deal with it as well as you do. What… What did you think I was making,
a cake? Here, look. I made more. [GLaDOS: Enrichment centre regulations
require both hands to be empty before any cake] So the next time you get a flu shot or hear
about the latest breakthrough at your local particle accelerator,
thank a ferret, because now, you know better.
Hey guys if you learned anything from this
video go ahead and give that like button a click. And if you’d like to see more from me,
I put out new videos every weekend, so go ahead and give that subscribe button a tickle. I know
I didn’t talk about the finer points of owning a ferret, so if you have any questions, or answers,
or tips, or tricks, go ahead and leave those in the comments. But in the meantime if you’d like to
see one of my older videos, how about this one?
[Outro music]