Ok, so this week’s species is totally adorable and has some interesting history/ facts about their living status. I also had a domesticated version of the species (lol trying not to give it away) and they were one of my first pets. I loved her (and him because we got a second one later on) to pieces 🥰 But ok… onto what we have been waiting for…

Endangered Species of the Week: The Black-Footed Ferret

                  Mustela nigripes

Black-footed ferrets are one of the most endangered mammals in North America and are the only ferret species native to the continent. Their recovery in the wild signifies the health of the grassland ecosystem which they depend on to survive. However, once thought to be globally extinct, today, recovery efforts have helped restore the black-footed ferret population to nearly 300 animals across North America.

They are slender, wiry animals with a black facemask, black feet and a black-tipped tail. The rest of their body is short and sleek, with fur that is a yellow-buff color, lighter on the belly and nearly white on the forehead, muzzle, and throat.

Black-footed ferrets once ranged throughout the North American Great Plains wherever prairie dog colonies thrived, from southern Canada to northern Mexico. Today, they have been reintroduced into parts of their former range in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Arizona.

Fun Facts:

Black-footed ferrets are very playful, especially as juveniles. Young at play will wrestle, arch their backs and hop backward with their mouths wide open, in a display known as the “ferret dance.”
Today, all wild black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 BFF’s Eighteen (Black-Footed Ferrets) that were caught to establish a breeding colony.
Ferrets have a high metabolic rate and require large quantities of food in proportion to their body size. One ferret may eat over 100 prairie dogs in a year, and scientists calculate that one ferret family needs more than 250 prairie dogs each year.
Black-footed ferrets are primarily nocturnal.

What is Threatening Them?

Black-footed ferrets once numbered in the tens of thousands, but due to a combination of human-induced threats, they were believed to be extinct twice in the 20th century.

Despite significant recovery successes, the BFF remains one of the most endangered mammals in North America. The primary reasons the species remains at risk are the same that nearly caused the animal’s extinction: disease, loss of habitat, and related declines in prey.

Conversion of native grasslands to agricultural land, widespread prairie dog eradication programs, and fatal, non-native diseases, such as plague, have reduced BFF populations to less than 2% of their original range. Much of the remaining habitat is now fragmented, with prairie dog towns separated by expanses of agricultural land and other human developments.

What is Being Done?

by 1986, due to disease, only eighteen individuals were known to exist in this isolated wild population. Scientists captured these remaining BFFs and they became the foundation for a successful captive breeding and reintroduction program that continues today. This Service-led BFF program has annually released BFFs into the wild at a number of different reintroduction sites across the West. Currently, there are approximately 280 BFFs living at captive breeding facilities. These recovery efforts are managed by the Service’s National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in northern Colorado and partners in multiple states.

Despite the many threats facing BFFs, wildlife managers believe the recovery of the species is attainable. There are more than 50 federal, state, tribal and non-governmental agencies working together in a recovery team effort to conserve this native species. Due to these partnerships, BFF recovery goals are within reach.