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About Ferrets...
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| Back to the Badlands |
| Black-footed ferrets, once considered extinct, are being reintroduced to this South Dakota national park in hopes of establishing a viable population. |
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| An article previously published in National Parks magazine, November/December 1994 Written by Todd Wilkinson As darkness edges across the South Dakota prarie, skittish hunters wearing black masks emerge from artificial underground cages. A gentle autmn breeze carries to their perked nostrils whiffs of cured blue grama and rangy bison. Slowly and cautiosly, the sleek predators amble forth, the scent of prarie dogs coaxing them toward freedom and a new life in the wild. High above them, in the cockpit of a plane, Badlands National Park wildlife biologist Glenn Plumb is conducting nighttime reconnaisance to monitor the animals' movements with radio teleletry. The subject of his research is Mustela nigripes- the black-footed ferret- a species long considered the most endangered land mammal in North America. Members of the weasel family and close relatives of the Siberian polecat, ferrets have what scientists call and "obligate" relationship with prarie dogs- meaning that they depend on the rodents as a primary staple of their diet and use their burrows for shelter and rearing young. This fall, following an exhaustive process of environmental review, scientists began reintroducing ferrets at Badlands. The first shipment of ferrets reared in captivity arrived at the park on September 8 (1994), and by mid-October, 38 animals were set free. For the ferrets, the journey home has involved a political and biological trek more than two decades in the making. Black footed ferrets once were endemic to 12 Western states- each which had prolific numbers of prarie dogs. As late as the 1800's, black tailed prarie dogs (one of five species) had an estimated population of five billion individuals, including a single colony in Texas that spanned 64,750 square kilometers and was home to perhaps 400 million prarie dogs, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Some say the abundance of prarie dogs buoyed a population that could have reached 1 million. But with the advent of modern farming and ranching, the face of the prarie changed. Eventually, campaigns of poisoning and shooting, together with onsets of disease and intensified crop production eliminated prarie dogs from 98% of their former range. As a consequence, the black-footed ferret has been listed as an endangered species since 1967. Some 20 years ago, the species was considered instinct in the wild after the last known survivors were taken into captivity from South Dakota's Mellette County. [ To Be Continued......... ] |
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