The species is entirely dependent upon prairie dogs for survival, so efforts to protect prairie dogs are designed to bolster ferret numbers to recover the species and return management to states.
Read about efforts to protect prairie dogs from sylvatic plague. Archives ». On April 10, The U. Fish and Wildlife Service Service published a proposal to establish a non-essential, experimental 10 j area for the black-footed ferret throughout the state of Wyoming.
This announcement opens a day public comment period, which closes on June 9, A 10 j designation under the Endangered Species Act ESA would increase management flexibility and lessen regulatory requirements related to future ferret reintroductions in the state of Wyoming. The goal of this proposal is to help facilitate new reintroductions of the black-footed ferret. On December 20, the Service completed a revision of the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Plan in coordination with interested State, Tribal, Federal, and non-government organizations or agencies within the historical range of the species, as well as through a review of public comments.
The black-footed ferret will benefit from purposeful management of a portion of existing prairie dog habitat in 12 western states; it is obligate predator of prairie dogs and depends upon their burrows for shelter. The Black-footed Footed Recovery Implementation Team, composed of representatives of the aforementioned organizations and agencies, will use the Revised Black-footed Ferret Recovery Plan to help guide future conservation efforts for the species. This SHA provides opportunities for private and Tribal landowners to volunteer their lands as sites for reintroduction of this endangered species without affecting their land-use activities beyond mutually agreed-upon measures.
It also extends these assurances to surrounding non-participating lands and other landowner interests via a Section 7 Biological Opinion BO for the SHA. This SHA approach will be an important step in promoting the recovery of this iconic species. This plan supports the continued conservation of the species. On January 23, , the Service is reopening the public comment period for the draft Black-footed Ferret Programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement for another 30 days.
The second public comment period will be January 23 through February If you have submitted comments already, you do not need to resubmit them because the Service will consider all comments submitted during both periods. The Service is also accepting any comments submitted between the two periods. You can view the Programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement at the link below. The SHA is part of a larger new multi-agency partnership to expand black-footed ferret recovery efforts.
And she knows Elizabeth Ann well. What makes this little ferret special is that she is a clone. More than five million black-footed ferrets once lived on the great plains of North America. They were cunning hunters that preyed almost entirely on prairie dogs.
They also poisoned and killed prairie dogs, leaving many black-footed ferrets without food. A plague also spread through the populations of both species. In , experts declared the black-footed ferret extinct. A farmer in Wyoming had discovered a small community of wild black-footed ferrets! Conservationists captured the wild ferrets and began a captive-breeding program. They hoped to save the species. Ryder had the foresight to ask for cell samples from several of the animals that were captured.
For each animal, he received a little glass vial containing a tiny piece of skin. The cells from this skin were preserved in a way that makes it possible to revive and grow them.
The captive-breeding program was challenging. Black-footed ferrets evolved to prey on prairie dogs and nearly went extinct in part because of a federal program to systematically poison prairie dogs on behalf of the livestock industry beginning a century ago. In , two years after the black-footed ferret was believed to have gone extinct, a small population was discovered in Wyoming.
When that population became threatened by introduced sylvatic plague, the last 18 ferrets were captured alive. Fifteen of them, representing the genetic equivalent of seven distinct founders, were used to start a captive population that has been used for reintroduction in several western states.
Science News. Journal Reference : Kevin T. Shoemaker, Robert C. Lacy, Michelle L. Verant, Barry W. Brook, Travis M. Livieri, Philip S. Miller, Damien A. Fordham, H.
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