DSC_9512 Feral ferret (Mustela putorius furo) Ferret owner and trapper Billy Barton and his partner Mary Hunt place nets across rabbit burrows to capture rabbits fleeing from Billy's deployed ferrets, in an effort to keep rabbit numbers down in the Cromwell Chafer Reserve, Cromwell *
DSC_9625 Feral ferret (Mustela putorius furo) framed by his two dogs Becca, (a greyhound/German shepherd cross), and a Welsh springer spaniel, ferret owner and trapper Billy Barton places extra nets across other rabbit burrows to capture rabbits fleeing from his trained ferrets, in an effort to keep rabbit numbers down in the Cromwell Chafer Reserve, Cromwell *
11002-22121 Ferret (Mustela putorius furo) this male Siamese/Point domestic ferret was imported as a breeder from Finland for the fur industry. The “points” (shoulders, hips, legs, and tail) have very dark guard hairs, while the torso is significantly lighter with only a scattering of dark guard hairs. Following the collapse of a struggling ferret fur-farming industry in NZ in the nineties, many farmers went bankrupt and irresponsible owners simply released their animals into the wild, placing further predation pressure on the country's native bird populations. Port Chalmers *