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.
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