One of the greatest pleasures of an ecologist, who studies animal populations, is to reunite with animals that have previously been identified, especially when several years have passed since the last time that it was seen. In today's post we will tell the story of a small ferreret that keeps reuniting with Dr. Pinya for several years now.
But the lets start from the beginning, in 2006, when a young naturalist began to study a new population of ferreret. A population that is located on the inner side of the Serra de Tramuntana, in the municipality of Selva. This is an isolated town that barely communicates with the network of roads in the area, and to reach it is necessary to pass through a dense shrub land.
As mentioned, in 2006 the monitoring of this population began and during the first visit, 8 adult specimens of our beloved ferreret. Among them was a young male who could barely reach 3.2 centimetres and had gone unnoticed. As the rest of his companions, our small male was identified by an alphanumeric code, namely the code Sc5.
The following year Sc5 was found again, and in 2009, 2011 and 2012. By that time, 6 years had passed since the first time that it was spotted. Undoubtedly, an achievement for this ferreret specimen, or at least that’s what Dr. Samuel Pinya thought... He said that in 2012 it was already a record to have found the same specimen 6 years apart. It was therefore expected that Sc5 had already died 4 years after the last time he was seen. To mention that the average lifespan for male ferrerets does not exceed 3.2 years.ç
But this year, under the joint monitoring project of Ferrer Hotels and the University of the Illes Baleares, everything has changed. The first visit which took place this year in the town of Sc5 was a big surprise. Among the 15 adults that we encountered there, Sc5 was found again!! 10 years have passed since it was first found in 2006!!
Listening to Dr. Pinya while he recounts the facts, we can see in his eyes the excitement of reuniting with Sc5, and the impact on the management of the species. Each year that passes is one more in the monitoring of the adult fraction which Dr. Pinya began in 2006, and it is very likely that in the coming years we will find new cases as the one of Sc5, which will make us question what we know about the ferreret to this day. Today, a decade later, we can say that there is still a long way to go if we want to really know the ferreret, and help in its preservation for many years to come in Mallorca.
