Basics to Ferret Hunting
For thousands of years, ferrets have been trained by hunters and farmers to help them in hunting down rabbits in farms. In as early as the 6 BC, ferrets have already been used in control rabbit plagues in the Balearic Islands. Up until now, ferret hunting is a distinguished activity in which many participate, especially in countries that have a growing rabbit population such as the United Kingdom.
Due to the sustenance of such use for ferrets, ferret hunting has already been termed as ferreting. Indeed ferrets are great animals in hunting down animals like rabbits and rodents. Their lean and long bodies, also their natural instincts further help them in sustaining a long chase. In addition, unlike other predators such as dogs, ferrets have the natural tendency to stick in holes, tunnels and burrows, which make them good predators even underground.
If you want to pursue ferreting with your pet ferret, then what you must know that it is not entirely an easy activity. It may true that it is innate with the ferrets to be hunters, however proper training is still needed for your ferret to go the right way. Also, ferreting is not made for all ferrets. Some hunters prefer hunting with a female ferret rather than a male one since they have a tendency to eat their prey after catching it. When this happens, the inevitable ‘lay up’ occurs wherein the ferret will sleep right away after eating its meal. It will be more difficult for you when this occurs since you have to dig out your ferret and the eaten prey out of the hole.
In order to be successful in ferret hunting, what you can do to help your ferret is to block all other holes where the ferret and its prey may exit to. Only leave open a hole in which you want your prey to come out of. Just outside this certain hole, you can put up a purse net, so that when a prey comes out of it, it will directly go into the net. This is the conventional method for most hunters and at times it has been proven very effective. However, there are also times that it may take such a long time before the prey and the ferret come out of the hole. What you can do in this instance is to purchase a tracking device that you can put as a collar for your ferret. It will help you in tracking the location of your ferret so that after the chase, it will be a lot easier for you to find it.
Ferrets are indeed reliable hunters in the field. They may not necessarily have a good vision underground but what makes them great hunters are their heightened senses. In addition to this, if you have an albino ferret, it will become a lot easier for you since they are much obvious to spot after a hunt.
Ferret hunting is relatively easy. Moreover, training your ferret is also a fairly easy task. Since ferrets are natural hunters, the process of hunting and scouting is already innate in them. As their master, what you must succeed at is polishing the hunting skills of your pet ferret for a more fruitful hunt in the future.