How did ferrets come to America?

The ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is a member of the Mustelidae, order Carnivora is thought to have originated from North Africa, as referenced by Strabo, a Greek historian and geographer, in his book Geographica, written in about 20 AD, of an animal in Libya which was said to been bred in captivity for hunting rabbits. The earliest known ferret species, M. stromeri, probably gave rise to M. putorius and M. eversmanni during the middle Pleistocene. Evidence that the ferret was probably domesticated either from the European polecat (M. putorius) or descendants of the Steppe polecat (M. eversmanni), or possibly a hybrid.

Within the genus Mustela, ferrets belong to the subgenus Putorius, from which there are only three extant species: M. putorius, the European polecat; M. eversmanni, the Siberian, or steppe polecat; and M. nigripes (black-footed ferret). The European polecat lives in open forests and meadows, and is the ancestor of the domestic ferret. The Siberian polecat looks nearly identical to the black-footed ferret and leads a similar life on open grasslands and semi desert regions across Russia, China and Siberia.

The ferret was domesticated to hunt small animals, usually rabbits for at least 2500 years ago. It is unknown due to there are no written records. The ferret was domesticated before the cat, by more than 500 years.

The ferret use as a hunter of rodents and rabbits can be traced to the 4th century B.C. The ferret is mentioned in Aristophanes comedy 'The Acharnians'written in 450 BC and Aristotle lists the ferret in his 'Historia Animalium' written about 420 BC. Historical documents from Greece mention the ferret about 450 BC.

Roman documents mention the use of ferrets to hunt rabbits at about the time of Christ, but they were already domesticated. Romans depended on the use of ferrets in hunting rabbits, and probably introduced ferrets to the British isles, but their are no written records or evidence. The earliest records of ferrets arriving in Britain dates to the 1200's, and about the same time the rabbit appeared, a century before.

• Rabbits in British islands AD 1135-1279

• Ferrets in England court roll - AD 1223 - the first written evidence of ferrets and their use of hunting rabbits in Britain

• Rabbits in British mainland AD 1235

• English ferreter attached to English Royal Court AD 1281

• Ferrets in Queen Mary's Psalter AD 1340

• Ferrets regulated in England AD 1390

• Ferrets were used on ships for rodent control and were introduced to the United States in 1875 and were used to hunt rats and rabbits.

• Ferrets were introduced to New Zealand in 1882 as a means of rabbit control