Wyoming Program Works To
WASHINGTON - Before anyone
the room on the University
of Wyoming campus, he must
shower and put on a disinfected
coat, overshoes, and surgical
mask.
The “patients" inside aren’t
necessarily sick or even feeble.
But they are among the last of a
species in very critical condition.
They are 11 black-footed ferrets,
small members of the weasel
family with black paws and face
masks, brought in from the wild
this summer to go into quarantine
in Laramie, Wyo. If they emerge
disease-free, the ferrets will join
six others at a Wyoming Game and
Fish Department breeding facility
45 miles northeast of Laramie.
Edge Of
Extinction
The 17 captive ferrets, along
with one or two others that were
seen in the wild this summer, may
be the last black-footed ferrets on
earth. Human destruction of their
habitat they live in prairie-dog
burrows and recent waves of
fatal disease have left the species
hanging on the edge of extinction.
“With this animal, things could
go either way,” says Dr. Tim W.
Clark, a biologist who has pursued
and studied the ferrets for 13 years
with support from the National
Geographic Society. “It’s just too
soon to tell how it’s going to come
out.”
A long, lithe mammal with eyes
that shine emerald in the night, the
nocturnal black-footed ferret runs
with the grace of a cheetah and
plays like a kitten. Spirits rose this
summer when some ferrets, most
of them young, were sighted near
Meeteetse, Wyo., the site of the
original discovery of a ferret in
1981.
“We went into last winter with
an estimate of two to 10 in
dividuals, and since more than half
of a population may die during a
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winter, we could have ended up
with almost nothing in the spring,”
Clark says.
Cut neither the wild population
nor the captive group was large
enough to ensure the species’
survival. “We potentially had a
loser on both ends,” Clark says. All
of the wild ferrets are targeted for
the breeding program.
“We really need 20 animals for a
sound genetic base,” says Dr.
Ulysses S. Seal, a specialist in
animal population management
who is advising the project
leaders. “These captive animals
will be the founders of new colonies
to be started in the wild.”
Though reluctant to attempt
captive breeding in the past, the
officials and scientists now agree
that it represents the only hope for
the species.
“Those in the wild are at greater
risk from predation, starvation,
injury, or disease,” says Dr. Tom
Thorne, veterinarian for the
Wyoming Fish and Game
Department, which has primary
responsibility for the animals. Two
juveniles from one litter were lost
in August, despite the monitoring.
The authorities concede that
captive breeding should have been
started several years ago when the
ferret population was relatively
large 129 individuals. That was
before sylvatic plague struck the
prairie dogs that are the ferrets’
prime food source.
And they’re determined not to
repeat one of the greatest mistakes
of the past, when six ferrets were
housed together in the initial
captive-breeding effort. By the
time it was discovered in 1985 that
two of the captive ferrets were
suffering from canine distemper,
they had fatally infected the other
four. By then distemper had taken
a severe toll in the wild, and only
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More Danger
In Wild
Save last Of Bbck-Foofetl Ferrets
T
A female black-footed ferret scans her neighborhood, on the plains near Meeteetse,
Wyo. The ferret spends most of the day underground but emerges at night to hunt. A
series of setbacks, including a distemper outbreak last year, has decimated the only
known population of black-footed ferrets and left the species fighting for survival. Now
biologists have captured some of the ferrets in an effort to breed them and save the
species.
six more could be found.
Spring came and went this year
without successful laboratory
breeding, and if no mating occurs
next spring, Seal says, artificial
insemination will begin.
The biologists, hampered by a
lack of basic knowledge about the
ferret’s reproduction, are studying
the domestication history of the
animal’s cousins the mink and
the European ferret, which is sold
as a pet. The black-footed ferret
has never been bred successfully
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in captivity.
“The animals are accepting
captivity quite well, with no
evidence of neurotic behavior,”
Seal says.
Meanwhile, the search for more
of them goes on. Each midnight in
Wyoming, a patrol sets out with
spotlights to search 120 square
miles of prairie-dog habitat for
signs of ferrets their charac
teristic green eyeshme, or perhaps
a litter of young scampering above
ground before they go into the
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burrow forthe day,
Reward Offered
A $5,000 reward has been posted
for a black-footed ferret lead in
Montana, where the last verified
sighting occurred eight years ago.
“This is a last-ditch effort to see if
somebody knows something we
don’t,” says John Cada, a state
biologist. “There’s probably less
than a 50-50 chance.”
Five years ago biologist Clark
paid a reward of $250. He had been
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