You Can Make A Difference!

There are many ways to help the efforts to keep the Black Footed Ferret flourish in the Great Plains. 

Here is a website to donate or "adopt an animal". You can send the government a message to save these furry little guys, or you can research on your own to become involved with the Black Footed Ferret. 

http://www.defenders.org/black-footed-ferret/how-you-can-help

Don't hesitate to become an advocate for wildlife!

Here is a website that shows more information about the Ferrets and also at the bottom gives a timeline of actions, press releases and campaigns to protect the Ferrets. You can become a Wildlife Guardian. 

http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/PageServer?pagename=species_mammals_black_footed_ferret&gclid=CJDi-pTggrsCFQISMwodFH4Ayw

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has."

-Margaret Mead

Won't you help us?

The captive breeding programs and reintroduction efforts have been a huge success after the rediscovery of these mammals years ago to expand the territory and the populations of these little critters. 

This video talks all about how these wildlife managers from Sunflower Journeys and members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife organization have taken their time and effort helping these little guys make a come back!

These creatures are important to the prairie ecosystem, we just do not know enough about them to have the thought of saving them. Scroll down in my blog and read about how these little mammals are important to the Great Plains.

What is the Importance of Black Footed Ferrets?

The Black Footed Ferret  is an important member of the Great Plains prairie ecosystem. As a predator, these creatures play an important role in keeping the prairie dog population in check. In this ecosystem they play a unique and important role that cannot be fulfilled by any other animal.

If unchecked, the prairie dogs population would explode, and they are considered pests because of their tunneling systems. Because of their tunneling systems, many grazing farm animals such as cows and horses may step in these tunnels and become lame, and most of the time must be put down.

 Prairie dogs are huge holders of zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted from animal to humans) such as Bubonic Plague and Tularemia. Both of these disease you DO NOT want to acquire. I thought about posting pictures of Bubonic Plague symptoms, but was too grossed out to do so. (You're welcome) 

Black Footed Ferrets are a huge contributor to the balance in the prairie ecosystems in the United States Great Plains areas.

Here is a great video with rockin' music which gives information on the Ferrets!

How Do They Behave?

Black Footed Ferrets are nocturnal animals,They sleep during the day and hunt prairie dogs at night. They are very secretive animals and few people have actually seen them in the wild. They eat, sleep, and raise their young underground, spending almost 90% of their lifespan under your feet. 

A healthy population of Black Footed Ferrets needs a large colony of prairie dogs in order to have enough food. Scientists estimated that a prairie dog colonies must be more than 10,000 animals large and for this to happen must be an area covering over 20,000 acres. Because of massive agricultural conversion of the prairie, 20,000 acres of prairie is hard to come by.

The breeding of Black Footed Ferrets is anywhere in March or April. The babies are called kits and kits are born anywhere from May to July. Kits range from 1-7 in a litter and average 3-5 in a litter. They are born blind and helpless and are raised by mother for two months until they can be taken out of the den and taught how to hunt for themselves, after about three months of this, they are independent to start their own dens.

Black Footed Ferret Kits! So adorable!

Location, Habitat and Endangerment

The Black Footed Ferret used to have numbers in the ten of thousands in Western United States, but had dwindled down to the brink of extinction due to widespread and heavy habitat loss and exotic diseases in the 1900s. Prairie Dog populations have decreased in the last several decades due to the conversion of prairie to agricultural land. Also Prairie dogs were poisoned because they were labeled as vermin by farmers and they suffered from an exotic disease called sylvatic plague. The less food, the less growth of the ferret, since the ferret is highly dependent on the prairie dog for survival. In 1986, there was counted a full 18 Black Footed Ferrets known in the wild.

They have been reintroduced in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Kansas. Since the reintroduction of these little guys, there are now over 750 ferrets in the wild and 250 living in captivity in specified breeding facilities. The life span of these ferrets are 3-4 years in the wild and 8-9 years in captivity. 

Their natural habitat ranges from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico, across the Great Plains. 

If you have NEVER heard of the black footed ferret, I am sure you have been to a pet store one time or another in your life and seen the cute little ferrets playing with each other in the shops. These animals are so alike, and so unalike from their cousins in pet stores, yet still so adorable.
Black Footed Ferrets (mustela nigripes) are anywhere from 18 inches to 24 inches long, and adults weight up to one and a half pounds to two and a half pounds, males being slightly larger than females.

Black footed ferrets are well adapted to their prairie environment. The fur coloring helps the ferret camouflage in tall grasses, soils and plants, and therefore hard to detect until they actually move.  They are slender animals with a black face mask, black feet and black tipped tails. The rest of its fur is a yellow-brown-cream coloring. They have larger ears and eyes, most likely have acute hearing and eye sight, but its sense of smell is most important for digging into holes and finding prey. Most of their prey consists of prairie dogs, but otherwise they might go for land squirrels, small rodents and birds.