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RANGE
BLACK-FOOTED FERRET
IN THE WILD, THE BLACK FOOTED FERRET'S DIET WAS MADE UP OF 90% PRAIRIE DOGS AND THE OTHER 10% WAS SMALL ANIMALS LIKE SNAKE, SQUIRREL, AND MICE.
BLACK-FOOTED FERRETS ARE NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, THEY SPEND ONLY A COUPLE HOURS IN THE MORNING TO HUNT AND THE REST OF THEIR TIME THEY SPEND IN PRAIRIE DOG MOUNDS. THEY DO NOT HYBERNATE, BUT THEY CAN SPEND UP TO A WEEK AT A SHOT IN THE WINTER COMING OUT ONLY WHEN THEY NEED FOOD.
THE PREDETORS OF THE BLACK-FOOTED FERRET, ARE THE COYOTE, FOX, BADGER, RATTLESNAKE, AND BIRDS SUCH AS OWL, HAWK, AND EAGLE.
The black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct in the 1970s until a last population was discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming in 1981 (5). Under initial protection measures, this population increased in numbers but then became infected by canine distemper and plague, which threatened to completely wipe out the species (5). As a last resort, the final 18 wild animals were caught and brought into captivity between 1985 and 1987, and a successful captive-breeding programme has been running ever since (3) (8). The US Fish and Wildlife Service's revised 'Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Plan' of 1988 prescribed the long-term target of establishing ten or more separate, self-sustaining wild populations, aiming to have 1,500 ferrets in the wild by 2010 (9). As of 2008, populations had been reintroduced to 18 sites, and with up to 250 wild born individuals distributed amongst several of these populations, the black-footed ferret was reclassified by the IUCN, moving from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered (1). While this is a fantastic conservation success story, wild ferret populations remain small (1), and conservation will need to continue if this species' future is to be secured.
