La Palma, an island in the Canary Islands, has an animal problem: wild ferrets that are multiplying there and could damage the ecosystem.
Humans are largely to blame, as people use ferrets to hunt for rabbits and then some of the ferrets are released or escape into the wild.
(Credit: Kevin Law)
The practice of hunting rabbits with ferrets is common in the Canary Islands. More than 20,000 ferrets are kept in captivity, with 9552 hunting licenses issued in 2007.
Félix M. Medina recently authored a paper on the ferrets for the journal Oryx. He is a researcher
in the Environmental Ministry of the Island Council of La Palma.
For the study, Medina and his colleagues gathered all of the studies done on ferrets in the Canary Islands. They also contributed 45 new observations -carried out between 1998 and 2007- on
wild ferrets, alive or dead, in 28 towns on the island of La Palma.
These days, "the species seems to be widely distributed in the north
of the island, with a seemingly isolated population in the center," he said.
After observing a ferret couple with three babies
in 2007, Medina now confirms the reproduction of these animals on the island. He believes their abundance and distribution are directly related to the
availability of prey, "as well as the availability of other kinds
of food and shelter which they find in the rural and cultivated areas of
La Palma."
The ferrets, following their rabbit hunting instincts, seem to be following these hopping animals. As a result, wild ferrets have now spread to wooded areas of
Canarian pine forests and in cultivated rural areas, where the ferrets have already damaged some farms.
Between January and April 2006, the scientists set 36 live capture traps at or near the farms in Las
Tricias, to the south-east of La Palma. Between August and November that
year, they set traps in other towns and, in total, captured 10
specimens.
Although the
scientists indicate that "the effect of wild ferrets on the native fauna
of the island is currently unknown," it is likely that it could
"negatively" affect various species of birds that breed on the ground.
At risk are the laurel pigeon (Columba junoniae) and the
Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). Ferrets could also hunt
subspecies of the endemic lizards Gallotia galloti palmae.
Medina said, "There is need for greater awareness of this problem in the public authorities, as well as tightening the law, controlling and penalizing the use of ferrets without a muzzle, in addition to launching information campaigns, especially amongst hunters, to reduce the risk on native species."
Tags: Animal Behavior, Animals, Human Behavior, Humans, Invasive Animal Species
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