Monitoring Ferrets
A best-practice protocol for monitoring ferret populations has been developed and is available from the National Possum Control Agencies.
Because factors such as seasonality substantially influence trappability of ferrets, the protocol is useful only for measuring population trends and cannot be used to measure the effect of control operations on ferret populations accurately in the way that similar protocols work for possums and rabbits.
One consequence of this is that the ferret protocol has not been implemented throughout the country. Vector managers instead have developed their own protocols depending on local needs and the scale of the ferret problem in their area.
In response to the need for a more reliable ferret monitoring method, Grant Norbury, Murray Efford and Andrea Byrom from Landcare Research are developing ways to get more accurate and precise estimates of ferret abundance, These will ultimately be incorporated into an updated monitoring protocol for ferrets.
