Why Endangered?

Farmers on the Great Plains destroyed much of the black footed ferrets habitat.

The black footed ferret was declared endangered in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.  The Endangered Species Act  is meant to conserve and protect endangered plants and animals.  The ESA is regarded as one of the strongest environmental protection laws in the world.  The Endangered Species Act is supposed to help rehabilitate animals and plants until they are no longer endangered.  The ESA prohibits all hunting, harm and harassment to the species.  Currently there are 96o plants and animals, mostly plants, on the Endangered Species Act.  The black footed ferret was falsely believed to be extinct in 1979 until a dog brought a dead ferret to its owner.  Before Europeans, the black footed ferret population numbered in the tens of thousands but now there are only 1,300 left in the world.

This image shows which countries do the most and the least to protect their endangered species.

Since then black footed ferrets have declined due to disease, habitat destruction and the systematic killing of their food source. Once settlers started living in the Great Plains, they brought non-native diseases which the ferrets had no ability to fight off.  Also, the settlers started farming in the ferrets habitat, which destroyed the prairie dog tunnels where the black footed ferrets live.  Finally, famers on the Great Plains considered prairie dogs a pest.  So, they staged mass killings of the prairie dogs with the approval of the government.  The prairie dog makes up 90% of the black footed ferrets diet, so with less prairie dogs, there wasn’t enough food for all the ferrets.

This video shows how black footed ferret populations have been diminished.