Black-Footed Ferrets are Repopulating After Having Thought to be Extinct
OutdoorHub 08.26.11
In 1967 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services declared black-footed ferrets to be extinct. They’ve since been rediscovered in 1981 by a rancher in Meeteestese, Wyoming and have been repopulated in captive breeding according to Brian Maxfield with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources over the last 30 years.
Biologists in the west have been breeding black-footed ferrets in captivity to avoid the spread of diseases among the animals during repopulation efforts. “They [the ferrets] are more social and pass on diseases easily,” said Maxfield. The plague that affects many ferrets and the white-tailed prairie dogs they feed on has been especially rampant for the last two years in South Dakota. White-tailed prairie dogs do not have a 100 percent kill rate like most black-footed ferrets with the disease.
Since their repopulation and first release back into the wild in the late 1990s, Utah has been able to repopulate three areas where ferrets were formally naturally found. They now have 20 ferrets in the wild and continue to grow numbers as natural reproduction occurs. Other western states with repopulation and release initiatives have seen an increase in black-footed ferret sightings especially near the Snake John Reef area in Colorado and Utah.
Though conservation efforts are valiant, the ferret is not yet off the endangered species list. Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, S. Dakota and other western states continually try to work toward meeting the criteria that will determine an animal safe from the endangered species list. Currently there are two thriving colonies in Northeastern Utah and biologists are working to expand that list to a minimum of 10 colonies.
Photo: Ryan Hagerty
