The Black Footed Ferret-Hannah Wilkins

The Black Footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes), a member of the Mustelids family

Summarize Description and Ecology of Organism

Black Footed Ferret kit being cute (commons.wikimedia.org)

“It is with great pleasure that we introduce this handsome new species” is how John James Audubon describes the Black Footed Ferret in his 1851 journal on “The quadrupeds of North America”. And Black Footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes) is indeed a very handsome species. It is a medium-sized carnivorous mammal endemic to the North American continent, usually weighing 1.4–2.5 pounds and typically measuring 19–24 inches from tail to nose. Its body is a creamy yellow-white, with black socks, “mask” on the eyes, and tail tip. Mostly a nocturnal species, they tend to appear on nights when the moon is in the sky. Each lives independently for the most part, except when breeding or mothers tending for their young. Black Footed Ferret can start reproducing at one year, and breed in the spring months (March-April). After a gestation period of 42-45 days, the kits are born, required care from the mother until they appear above-ground in July. In the fall months, mostly September or October, they leave their mother.

In the prairie ecosystem, Black Footed Ferret serve as one of the secondary consumers of prairie dogs. Black Footed Ferret rely on prairie dogs for both food (it makes a majority of their diet) and dens, as Black Footed Ferret use previously occupied prairie dog dens to live and raise their young in.

The historical range of the Black Footed
Ferret previous was from Canada to Mexico,
spread out across the continental US.

Geographic and Population Changes

Because Black Footed Ferrets rely on prairie dogs for much of their lives, they tend to exist where prairie dogs are: primarily the Great Plains, mountain basins, and grasslands. It is estimated that before humans arrived, the prairie dogs that lived in these massive range of areas supported anywhere from 500 thousand to one million Black Footed Ferret. However, since the arrival of humans in the late 1800s, the population began declining as a result of shrinking historical habitat areas, eventually to the point where it was thought that the Black Footed Ferret had gone extinct. Had a small group of individuals not been discovered near Meeteetse, Wyoming, the Black Footed Ferret would have been thought extinct forever. The loss of land is primarily due to urbanization and crop production, the latter because of the rich soils of the Midwest.

Listing Date and Type of Listing

Where the Black Footed Ferret is located on the priority chart.

The Black Footed Ferret was first listed as endangered in 1967, in early endangered species legislation, long before the Endangered Species Act came around (it was signed in 1973, six years after the Black Footed Ferret was presented as an endangered species). This makes the Black Footed Ferret one of the oldest species in the recovery program. A formal recovery plan was first published in 1978, when it was thought that no wild ferrets existed. A second recovery plan was published in 1988 with the intention of establishing a breeding program to re-introduce populations into the wild with a minimum of 30 adults in each group.

The Black Footed Ferret was initially classified as extinct, due to the having no organisms found in the wild, although that classification has since been changed to Endangered, where it remains today. It’s priority number is 2C, meaning it experiences a high degree of threat most likely from economic conflicts. These economic conflicts are primarily from the prairie dog’s interactions with the Midwestern croplands.

Cause of listing and Main threats to its continued existence

The Black Footed Ferret was listed because of its declining population. Since the time when humans began to expand across the continental United States, the prairie’s previously rich and balanced ecosystem crumbled under the influence of humans. Buffalo are the primary species know that suffered under this expansion, but prairie dogs (viewed as an economical threat to crops and domesticated animals) also suffered massive population losses. Because prairie dogs are the primary food source for Black Footed Ferret, the Black Footed Ferret population naturally suffered. This connection to prairie dogs is thought to be one of the primary threats to the Black Footed Ferret’s existence.

The spread of sylvatic plague, originating from San Fransisco.

The loss of the prairie habitat affected the entire ecosystem, primarily to urbanization and croplands, and bottlenecked the entire species. As shown above in “Geographic Changes”, the area that the Black Footed Ferret has historically occupied has dropped by roughly 96% from its original area.

The Black Footed Ferret also suffers from two different diseases that have detrimental effects on its populations. Canine distemper and sylvatic plague have both presented issues to the species. Canine distemper, a deadly disease that can travel indirectly through the air or environment, is thought to have wiped out the last remaining wild ferrets that were not captured for the 1988 breeding program. The disease is similar to measles and bronchiectasis and has similar symptoms. It was thought to have been introduced through domesticated animals, primarily dogs. A common strategy for countering this disease is the administration of vaccines, but these can be difficult to administer in the wild. Sylvatic plague is usually transmitted through fleas, and both prairie dogs and Black Footed Ferret are extremely susceptible to the disease, and their susceptibility increased due to habitat loss and increased proximity with others of their species. This plague is an example of an alien species-it did not exist on the North American continent until it arrived in San Francisco in the early 1900’s. Since then, it has spread across the western United States.

Description of Recovery Plan

Estimated population growth projected for the next seventeen years
based on previous trends and a hopeful outlook.

The final target for the recovery plan was to have 1500 breeding ferrets in the wild with 10 different groups (this goal is only 23% met). Some of the key points of the recovery plan are: 1-create a stable Black Footed Ferret population (which includes genetic diversity and successful reproduction) through a breeding program (which is already in place with , 2-reinforce the prairie dog population and habitat area so that the Black Footed Ferret population can be stable (as discussed in Challenges To Black-Footed Ferret Recovery: Protecting Prairie Dogs), 3-working with local tribes and governments, and other local groups to ensure the survival of both the Black Footed Ferret and prairie dog.

What can you do?

Ferrets have very long bodies,
good for looking out and checking the area.

For those living in the habitat areas of the Black Footed Ferret, one action that can be taken is protecting the prairie dog. Since the prairie dog is an important species, not just for the Black Footed Ferret, but for the entire prairie ecosystem, making them a keystone species. Although prairie dogs are considered agricultural pests, their survival is crucial for the Black Footed Ferret. Currently, some areas in the Midwest that practice hunting prairie dogs for sports and set out poison to kill them. Both of these practices damage the prairie dog population and subsequently the Black Footed Ferret population.

Although the majority of the readers of this post most likely live in California, we can support the recovery of the Black Footed Ferret through social awareness, and support the reintroduction efforts. Even though we are far away, this is something we can do to help.

Other resources

Defenders of Wildlife: Black Footed Ferret:

https://defenders.org/black-footed-ferret/basic-facts

National Geographic:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/b/black-footed-ferret/

Black Footed Ferret Connections:

http://blackfootedferret.org/

Black Footed Ferret coming out into the big world. The recovery can take a long time, but we can get there.

Works/Images Cited:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2013. Recovery plan for the black-footed ferret (Mustela

nigripes). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado. 157 pp.

Miller, Brian and Richard P. Reading. "Challenges to Black-Footed Ferret Recovery: Protecting Prairie Dog." Western North American Naturalist, vol. 72, no. 2, Aug. 2012, pp. 228-240. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=78948390&site=ehost-live.

Audubon, John James, et al. “The quadrupeds of North America.” 1851, pp. 391–393., doi:10.5962/bhl.title.51130.

Ryan Moehring / USFWS, Black-footed_Ferret_Kit, Version 1, USFWS Mountain-Prairie, 2015/01/16, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-footed_Ferret_Kit_(16156533058).jpg

J. Michael Lockhart/USFWS, Black-footed_Ferret, https://commons.wikimedia.org, version 1, 2010/12/8, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-footed_Ferret_(5244704610).jpg

J. Michael Lockhart/USFWS, Black-footed_ferret, https://commons.wikimedia.org, version 1, flickr, 2010/12/08, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-footed_Ferret_(5244105795).jpg