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Educational Resources Science and Conservation

Black-Footed Ferrets in the News Black-Footed Ferrets in the News
The legend of the black-footed ferret
By Jeffrey Wolf and Kevin Torres - 9News.com - 08/19/2010
When a prison escapee was picked up in the tiny Wyoming town of Meeteetse last week, many of us at 9NEWS said: Mee-what? Up until then, many of us had no clue the town existed. More...
Black-footed ferrets breeding in Saskatchewan
CBC News - 08/04/2010
Wildlife officials are gushing with pride after spotting a litter of newborn black-footed ferrets in Saskatchewan's Grasslands National Park, a few months after the creature was reintroduced to the area. "In the early hours of July 14, a playful litter of kits was observed," Parks Canada announced Wednesday. More...
Zoo record broken for ferret births
The Washington Post - 08/04/2010
The black-footed ferret was once thought to be extinct. But the National Zoo's Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal is doing its part in helping to boost the population. More...
Prairie Dogs Have Their Day
By Ruthanne Johnson - www.humanesociety.org - 07/27/2010
The stars may finally be aligning for black-tailed prairie dogs. Historically considered pests, the targets of poisoning and sport shooting, these native animals are gaining the respect of scientists and wildlife agents in federal grasslands, where colonies of prairie dogs support a myriad of species in decline: burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, mountain plovers, swift foxes, and North America's most endangered mammal, the black-footed ferret. More...
New Life for Vanishing Species
By Susan Logue Koster - Voice of America - 07/19/2010
For more than a century, the National Zoo in Washington has attracted visitors wanting to learn more about animals. Some 2,000 animals are currently in the collection, ranging from ants to elephants. More...
Forest Service to trap, move prairie dogs in Wyoming
The Associated Press - Billings Gazette - 07/13/2010
The U.S. Forest Service says it intends to trap and relocate black-tailed prairie dogs on the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. Relocations are scheduled to begin later this month and continue through August. More...
Another Kind of Coloradan Looking For Help Staying in Their Homes
By Eric Mack - Public News Service - 07/05/2010
A bird called the mountain plover is being considered for greater protection by the federal government. The plover is a small brown bird that's being proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act for a third time. More...
S.D. ranchers fear wilderness act steals control
By Thom Gabrukiewicz - ArgusLeader.com - 07/04/2010
A low carpet of greens and browns helps soften the landscape, the erosion that's carved steep wedges leading to gravel-filled creeks, where chalky waters flow like a melted vanilla malt. Above the ever-present rush of the wind, nature resonates. More...
Wind Cave Begins Night Hikes In Search of Ferrets
nps.gov - 07/01/2010
Rangers at Wind Cave National Park will be offering special night hikes this summer in hope of seeing a black-footed ferret, the rarest animal in North America. Starting July 10, these special ranger programs will begin at the Elk Mountain Campground at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays. More...
Circumstances Force National Park Service to Actively Manage Wildlife
By Kurt Repanshek - National Parks Traveler - 06/10/2010
Florida panther kittens at Big Cypress National Preserve dosed with dewormers. Black-footed ferrets at Badlands National Park inoculated against plague. More...
Wyoming ferret reintroduction efforts hit snag
By Jeremy Pelzer - Casper Star-Tribune - 05/22/2010
Even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a petition by conservation groups last week to give the black-footed ferret more federal protection, state wildlife workers say the threat alone harms future reintroduction efforts in Wyoming. The petition, filed last fall by the groups WildEarth Guardians, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Center for Native Ecosystems, sought to give full federal endangered species protection to black-footed ferrets on public lands. More...
UA students clear way for new prairie dogs
By Rynski - TucsonCitizen.com - 05/19/2010
A new colony of black-tailed prairie dogs set up in Las Cienegas National Conservation Area is doing so well that some college students did some housekeeping to clear the way for more. Up close with the black-tailed prairie dog/BLM photo A group of University of Arizona student volunteers spent Saturday morning clearing away downed mesquite trees to clear the grasslands in Las Cienegas, about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, according to a news release from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. More...
Ferrets' status remains unchanged
By Jeremy Pelzer - Casper Star Tribune - 05/18/2010
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it has denied a petition by environmental groups to give the black-footed ferret more protection as an endangered species. It's unclear whether the ruling will resurrect efforts by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to reintroduce the animal, among the rarest in North America, on private land in southern Albany County. More...
USDA Adds More Acres to Habitat Restoration Projects under SAFE to Allow Landowners in Colorado and Washington to Advance Conservation Efforts
USDA Newsroom - 05/12/2010
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA has approved 45,000 acres for two conservation projects under the Conservation Reserve Program called "State Acres For Wildlife Enhancement," or SAFE. "One of the important goals of SAFE initiative projects is to protect and restore habitats for rare, threatened or endangered wildlife and we are particularly interested in working with farmers and ranchers to conserve rare species before they have to be listed under the Endangered Species Act," Vilsack said. More...
Why the Buffalo Can’t Roam
By Hillary Rosner - 05/11/2010
In front of Karrie Taggart's tidy, red-roofed Montana house, half a dozen bison relax in the spring sun. Others amble slowly along the road, graze in yards, or doze in driveways, untroubled by the occasional passing car, pedestrian, or dog. Their distinctive profiles, with sloping shoulders and furry, horned heads, create a bizarre picture beside the hot tubs and satellite dishes. More...
March madness record numbers: Black-footed ferrets in the spotlight near the Grand Canyon
By Stacey Wittig - Grand Canyon Hiking Examiner - 04/10/2010
The elusive varmits may not hold the same fascination as does college basketball, but to those working toward the recovery of black-footed ferrets, the records established in March hold more meaning. “It’s exciting news,” said Jeff Corcoran, supervisor for the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Black-footed Ferret Recovery Effort in Seligman, AZ located 58 miles south of the Grand Canyon. More...
Bryce Canyon National Park Hosts its First Annual Utah Prairie Dog Day
KCSG.com - 04/07/2010
Bryce Canyon National Park Acting Superintendent Jacque Lavelle invites you to join the park’s first annual Utah Prairie Dog Day celebration on Friday April 30. A year-round inhabitant of Bryce Canyon’s high plateau meadows, the Utah Prairie Dog is an important component of the park’s ecosystem. More...
The prairie ecosystem needs its ‘dogs’
By Tom Galusha - The Pueblo Chieftain- 04/05/2010
The tiny burrowing owl alighted atop a cone of prairie dirt, which marked a tunnel's mouth. Unable to dig its own burrow, the owl scrambled down the steeply slanted tunnel into a chamber it had claimed for itself — thanks to prairie dogs. More...
Plague Poses Widespread Risk to North American Wildlife
Environment News Service - 03/01/2010
Sylvatic plague - a close cousin of the dreaded disease that killed one-third of all European residents in the six years between 1347 and 1353 - persists in rodents in the American West even when the disease does not erupt into epidemic form, new research demonstrates. The newly published work indicates that plague continues to affect the black-footed ferret, one of the most critically endangered mammals in North America, as well as several species of prairie dogs, including the federally threatened Utah prairie dog. More...
Longmont Airport To Start Trapping Prairie Dogs
thedenverchannel.com - 02/21/2010
Vance Brand Municipal Airport in Longmont is trapping and killing dozens of prairie dogs that have threatened funding for the facility. In an operation starting Monday, trapped prairie dogs will be euthanized with carbon dioxide and donated as food for centers that care for injured raptors. More...
Snow-tracking leads to promising ferret count
By Mike Corn - The Hays Daily News - 01/29/2010
Bounding from one hole to another, the black-footed ferret's tracks are distinctive -- when conditions are just right to see them. "We found about 20 ferrets on half of our ranch," said Larry Haverfield, whose 10,000-acre ranch has been at the heart of controversy over prairie dogs and the reintroduction of ferrets, among the most endangered mammals in the United States. More...
Pick your poison
By Ted Williams - Missoula Independent - 01/21/2010
"Biocides" was Rachel Carson's term for pesticides that kill indiscriminately. They haven't been much talked about since the banning of DDT and relatives in the 1970s—until now. More...
Return of the ferret
By Candace Savage - Canadian Geographic - 12/2009
Outside the car window, a large rodent called a blacktailed prairie dog stands guard over what looks like a ruined world. As far as the eye can see, the land is dry and scabby, cratered with prairie dog burrows and hatched with a meagre growth of sage and grass. More...
Toronto Zoo's Black-footed Ferret Release Enters Phase Two
By Kathy Jury - zandavisitor.com - 12/24/2009
History was made on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 when 34 black-footed ferrets were released in Canada’s Grasslands National Park near Val Marie, Saskatchewan, after an absence of nearly 70 years. The release of the ferrets, many of whom were born at the Toronto Zoo, was an international conservation dream come true: species on the brink of extinction can be saved. However, the hard work is just beginning as the exacting process of monitoring the released animals gets underway. More...
Prairie Dogs Deemed Not Endangered
PR Newswire - 11/05/2009
Black-tailed prairie dogs were denied protection under the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday after federal officials concluded the once prevalent species showed signs of rebounding. Decades of poisoning, shootings, the plague and loss of habitat to agriculture are blamed for a drastic drop in prairie dog numbers since the early 1900s, from roughly one billion animals to an estimated 24 million today. More...
Colorado Companies Team Up With U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to Protect Black-Footed Ferret
By The Associated Press - The New York Times - 12/02/2009
The endangered black-footed ferrets inhabit prairie dog towns in the western U.S. This rare carnivore feeds on prairie dogs. The prairie dogs are very susceptible to plague and often entire population die-offs in towns occur. More...
Black-footed Ferrets: Saving a Vanishing Species
The Nature Conservancy - Fall Update 2009
For 15 years, wildlife biologist Travis Livieri has prowled the prairie at Conata Basin at night. His quarry? The black-footed ferret — one of the most endangered mammals in North America. More...
Endangered ferrets surviving plague
By Chet Brokaw - The Associated Press - 10/26/2009
One of the nation's largest colonies of endangered black-footed ferrets is surviving despite the disease that has hit their home in a vast stretch of prairie dog towns south of Badlands National Park, according to federal wildlife officials. More...
Black-footed ferret reintroduced to Saskatchewan prairies
By Anne Kyle - Canada.com - 10/01/2009
More than 70 years after vanishing from the Canadian Prairies, the black-footed ferret is once again scampering in the wild at Saskatchewan's Grasslands National Park. More...
Hunt for black-footed ferrets on plains ends
By Chris Woodka - The Pueblo Chieftain - 09/09/2009
The last black-footed ferret known to live in the wild in Colorado died more than 50 years ago. Still, under the Endangered Species Act, Eastern Colorado landowners were required to survey their land on the off-chance that a ferret colony somehow survived. No more. More...
Plague vaccine for prairie dogs could save endangered ferret
By Hadley Leggett - Wired.com - 08/04/2009
Wild prairie dogs may soon get a dose of something extra in their daily diet: an oral vaccine against the plague. The same “Black Death” that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages is still alive and well in wild rodents across the western United States. More...
Prairie dogs fighting plague
Associated Press - 07/18/2009
Officials plan to treat prairie dog colonies where sylvatic plague has been found in Badlands National Park. The disease is spread by fleas and is fatal. An insecticide dust will be put in prairie dog holes. More...
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