Ray Malone with the pick of his hunting ferrets, Search Warrant. Photo: Supplied.
About six months ago a Goulburn ferret breeder, Ray Malone, brought one home that was two years old and on death’s door.
His ferrets are in high demand around Goulburn and district for eradicating rabbits from warrens along gullies, under piles of wood, even shipping containers.
They are given love and attention and fresh rabbits to eat as a reward for their hunting prowess underground.
But the previous owners had neglected the little polecat who could barely move when Ray brought it home. It couldn’t even walk. When Ray ran his hand gently along its undernourished body all he could feel was a lean and feeble frame.
“I ended up sitting down with it all night in my shed with a hot water bottle, blankets and milk,” he said. “I stayed down there for hours.”
The black ferret showed no signs of recovering. Not a flicker of life came from its fast-fading body.
About 3 am Ray gave up. After making sure the animal was as warm and comfortable as possible, he left the shed, expecting the ferret to be cold and dead when he returned early the next morning. But as dawn approached Mother Nature intervened.
“He was still alive and he has become my best ferret,” Ray said.
This death-defying little critter has been extraordinarily successful at flushing rabbits out of warrens around Goulburn for its grateful new owner, who has been hunting with ferrets since he was a boy, learning from his father Phillip Gann.
The ferret had never worked before. “He went down about three burrows before he learned what to do,” Ray said. Now there is no holding him back.
“He is a weapon,” he said. “He knows what to do and he is good at it.
“I have had two ferrets in one burrow for 20 minutes and nothing came out. I put him down the burrow and we got five rabbits.”
Ray has named his champion rabbit-catcher “Search Warrant.” His mates are adamant Search Warrant is so thankful for a second chance at life it’s showing Ray his appreciation.
“I absolutely love him for that and he is my go-to ferret.” Ray said. “He is a beautiful ferret. When I got him you could feel all the skin and bones on him; it was awful.”
Having put on weight and taken to his new surroundings, Search Warrant has been paired with another high-performer, Miss Search Warrant.
They have a big job ahead. Thieving valuable livestock feed, ringbarking sapling trees and triggering soil erosion with their continual burrowing, European rabbits have been the bane of landholders since English settler Thomas Austin released them at Barwon Park, Victoria in about 1859. They have since bred into billions of wild bunnies.
Trapping, shooting, poisoning, gassing, bulldozing and rounding up with dogs have failed to eradicate them, nor has the release of a deadly virus.
But Search Warrant, Miss Search Warrant and Ray’s other ferrets Trixie Girl, Sarg, Big Milo, Roxy who has nine kits (babies), Marley and Bruce give it their best shot, scurrying into warrens that have nets covering the exit holes to ensnare the lightning-quick rodents.
A black-eyed white ferret with a tinge of black down its back, Bruce fights with the other ferrets and lives on its own to keep the peace.
“When a ferret stays down a hole for longer than it should I actually send Bruce down and this gets them out,” Ray said.
His best outing with a mate netted 42 rabbits.
A maintenance worker at Holcim Mine at Marulan, Ray offers his ferrets as a free service. In return he gets the chance to exercise his pets and wild rabbits to feed them with and occasionally, rabbit stew for his family.
Ferrets need plenty of stimulation and get plenty of affection from Ray, but he has been reminded their bite hurts like crazy. About a month ago he went to Canberra to buy a nine-month old jill (female) ferret, and was assured by its owner it was toilet-trained and didn’t bite.
“So I grabbed it and by golly it grabbed me on the finger and wouldn’t let go for about two minutes. There was blood everywhere,” he said with a wince.
In a warren, rabbits react to a ferret quickly. “You sort of get notice before it happens because the rabbits tend to thump a lot under the ground, running from the ferret,” he said. “So you hear the ground rumble a bit, so you know they are coming out.”
