the European polecat, forest-polecat or Ratz is a real noble-marten like ermine and mink, however penetrated and less quickly and movable as its cousin.
Shape The forest-polecat, and even more clearly the steppe-polecat, is (also like the badger) a "wrongly colored mammal": its underside is considerably darker than the back namely. This shows brightly over light-sallow sub-wool - until russet Grannen, that becomes the property dun of the underside in one. The flanks collect brightly, also like the head, that attracts attention through a dark eye patch. The legs and the tail are soot-dark.
Way of life The polecat is it in Europe at the the most frequently appearing marten, who is to be found as a loner everywhere. it is extraordinarily welcome in its quality as excellent Rattenvertilger as Kulturfolger for us. it is a predominant ground-inhabitant, that only extremely rarely and in distinct predicaments climbs. As a swimmer, it is excellent for it. From all European martens, the polecat possesses them anal at the best trained one - or also Stinkdrüsen, what brought it also the waidmännischen name "Stänker." it splashes pursuing dogs or foxes the smelly glandular-secretion amazingly unerringly contrary to. It is reported many times that even foxes respect polecats.
Reproduction Peculiarly and the combination-game of the polecats is interesting: During the Ranz, that falls with our European representatives in the months March until June, the male dog pursues the Fähe. Is on this occasion to be determined an extraordinary voice-joyfulness and variety. The Lautgebung extends from grumbling, Keckern and cackling to a particular, nasal "Gog-gog" - tone. If the Fähe is not combination-ready, it runs or bites off the male dog. If however, it is in heat, it lets herself grasp at the neck-fur from the male and falls into a Tragstarre as we know it from young Hundeartigen and wolves ago. In this condition the female lets itself often around-tow until a point, with what it becomes ever "more emotional" and finally asks the male dog for the mating. The pair drops to the side, the male dog includes the female with the front-legs, still holds on to it with the neck-bite and carries out the mating, that can last in turn very long. If the copulative is carried out, the sexes separate again and continue its einzelgängerisches existence in its precincts.
After a Tragzeit of 41-42 days, the Fähe brings to the world, that the eyes open only after 4-5 weeks, in their shelter padded with soft plant-material 4-7 whitish haired kids. The polecat-mother now leaves the nest only to the eating and emptying for some days. In this time, it defends its boys with furious attacks against each invader. Although they still are blind, the boys already are very voice-joyful and active shortly after the birth. One can frequently perceive the typical "nest-twitter." Beside the mother's milk, the boys take to itself already from the third life-week of meat and put down its excrement at solid places of the cave. In this time, also the Umfärbung of the fur begins. After the opening the eyes, the movement-urge becomes ever stronger, and the Fähe more and more frequently must bring back the boys from the nearer surroundings in the nest. Often, the puppies with loud fury-scream protest. After three months, the boys are virtually adult and dissolve the mother-family.
Nutrition The former manners now turns again into the "merchandise-camp" for along-towed and killed loot, because also here the polecat doesn't make any exception for the earth and Stinkmardern: it often kills more loot-animals considerably as it can immediately consume. Not rarely, one finds a polecat-construction, in which a big reserve of even living, but unable to move frogs is. On this occasion, it doesn't act, how many times claims, is towed about a flat-full aiming of living food-reserves but the frogs paralyzed through one back-bite like dead loot into the shelter and perishes slowly there.
Ferrets Polecats are the single martens, from whose middle a pet was created through Züchtung, the ferret (Mustela putorius forma domestica). On that occasion is about an albino with white or pale-yellow fur and red eyes.
Very much probably, the ferret descends from the European polecat, possibly however also from the steppe-polecat.
With European polecats, the ferrets are without restriction fertile anytime. One calls these descendants polecat-ferrets. Ferrets and polecat-ferrets hardly differ from polecats. So one could take advantage well of the natural hunt-instinct of the polecats for the human matters and directed the ferrets toward rabbits and to the fight to the hunt from rats and mice on.
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