SARUM U3A
New Chairman Jenny Mawer welcomed members to the April Coffee Morning at St Francis Church and announced that the May meeting would be devoted to the annual exhibition of craft groups and leaders’ reports.
Our speaker Gordon Lewis gave us a master class on the fascinating world of ferrets, covering their biology, history and behaviour. He brought three of his own pets including Millie, the UK Supreme Champion of 2010, which members were able to stroke and feed.
We learned that ferrets belong to the mustelidae family, along with badgers, stoats and weasels. They come in colourings ranging through sable, chocolate, silver and cinnamon. The male is called a hob and the smaller female is a jill. If cared for, ferrets can live for up to eight years.
It is likely that ferrets were first introduced into England by the Romans at the same time as rabbits. In 1390 it became illegal to hunt with ferrets on a Sunday, a law that is still extant. The use of ferrets is still the most efficient way of keeping rabbit populations under control.
Racing ferrets through tunnels is a popular attraction at county shows and the winner is the one that emerges completely from the tunnel – it “wins by a tail”.
The well-known ferret down the trousers endurance test started with rabbit poaching. The poacher put the ferret down his trousers to hide it from the landowner; and if he was lucky it would go to sleep. Ferrets can sleep for 18 hours a day.