Protection and Rehabilitation Efforts

This chart shows the amount of black footed ferrets born in captivity.

In 1985, 18 black footed ferrets were captured and brought into captivity from their last known refuge.  It is from these 18 ferrets that all black footed ferrets alive today come from, and thanks to rehabilitation efforts, there are now approximately 1,300 ferrets currently living in the world.  Reintroduction of black footed ferrets began in 1991 with the release of 49 ferrets into Shirley Basin, Wyoming.  There are currently reintroduction sites in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, and New Mexico.

This is Shirley Basin, Wyoming, which is the first reintroduction site for the black footed ferret.

Ferrets are bred each year in certain facilities which are closed to the public. Once ferrets cannot breed anymore they are sent to zoos to educate people.  Each year 150-220 black footed ferrets are preconditioned and released into the wild.  Currently the biggest obstacles to ferret reintroduction are lack of suitable space, disease, and lack of food sources.  The WWF has been trying to restore the prairie dog population so the ferret can be introduced into more sites.  Also the World Wildlife Fund has been giving prairie dogs antibodies so they don’t infect black footed ferrets with the sylvatic plague.

This video shows the captive breeding effort going on to save the black footed ferret.