We should be aware that this small creature is in danger.
What creature is mostly nocturnal and lives in the prairies?
Give up? It's the North American Black-footed Ferret (or Mustela nigripes in Latin). It belongs to a group known as the mustelid, or musk producing animals. Sixty-four known species live throughout the world everywhere except in Australia and Antarctica. They range from the weasel that barely weighs one to two ounces to the heaviest the sea otter that can weigh over 100 pounds. Unlike its family member, the domesticated ferret that you find in pet stores, this type of ferret is found in the wild. Sadly, the Black-footed Ferret has been put on the endangered species list at the critical stage. These ferrets are the only species of its kind to be put on the endangered list in 1967 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
This ferret was not discovered until a rancher's dog killed one in 1981. This led to a discovery three years later of over 130 ferrets near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Biologist began researching the history and behavior of this secretive animal, but tragically an outbreak of sylvatic plague and canine distemper killed nearly the whole population. Only 18 of the 130 remained. The researchers placed those remaining 18 in captivity.
Between 1985 and 1987 efforts were made to save this dying species. The captured ferrets were taken to a captive breed facility in Sybille Canyon, Wyoming, known today as the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center. Conservation groups since 1991 have been reintroducing this little mammal back into the wild. They began their efforts in Wyoming and have expanded since then to Montana and Utah. Biologists hope to have a population of 1500 ferrets in the wild with 30 breeding adults in each population by 2010. If this status can be met, this creature will no longer be on the endangered species list.
This mammal has a tan body with black legs and feet, a black-tipped tail and a black mask that makes it look like a bank robber. It is mostly nocturnal, that is mostly active at night. Its short legs with large paws and claws were developed well for digging. They spend only a few minutes each day above ground to find new burrows or mates. The black-footed ferrets spend 90% of their time underground eating their stored food, sleeping, giving birth to their young and avoiding predators and harsh weather.
What Does the Black-Footed ferrets Eat?
If you said prairie dogs you would be right, but ferrets are also known to eat ground squirrels, small rodents, rabbits and birds. Their large skulls, strong jaws and teeth are adapted well for eating meat. The ferret's large ears and eyes make many believe that they have acute hearing and sight, but it's their sense of smell that's the most important. It helps them hunt their prey underground. 90% of the ferret's diet consists of prairie dogs, in one year they can eat up to over 100 prairie dogs. In the wild these creatures can live three to four years, but while in captivity they live up to eight or nine years.
These small mammals don't hibernate. Hibernating is what bears do during the winter months, which is to sleep throughout the whole winter. The amount of time ferrets are active becomes less, as do the distances they travel. They don't have to go far because they have a hidden cache of in these burrows. They can stay in the same system of burrows for weeks at a time.
Male ferrets are more active than females. The males travel double the distances that females travel. They are slightly larger than the females. A ferret is about six inches tall 18 to 24 inches long including their five to six inches. They weigh about one and a half to two a half pounds. A black-footed ferret's life is a solitary one, except during mating season or when a female is caring for her young.
The black-footed ferret's mating season falls between March and April. The gestation period, the time when the female becomes pregnant and actual time she has the kits, is 41 to 43 days afterwards a litter of kits are born around May to June. A litter can range from one to seven as well as be just a single kit, but an average litter is from three to four. The kits are born blind and helpless and for the first two months they stay underground. After those two months the mother takes them hunting with her and separates them into different burrows. In October, the kits are independent enough to leave the burrow and find territories of their own.
Threats to these animals are very real, from deadly diseases to predators, like coyotes, great-horned owls, golden eagles, prairie falcons, badgers, bobcats and foxes. All these different habitats are linked with one another and the destruction of the habitats is a really big reason why many animals in general are becoming extinct.
Several diseases also contribute to the loss of these ferrets. A disease that is thought to be always fatal to the black-footed ferret is Canine Distemper. This is spread by animals that are always near the prairie dogs towns, like coyotes and badgers. Another disease in the Sylvatic plague that is spread by fleas the same way as bubonic plague.
The bubonic plague was a devastation that spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, killing the human population. Like the bubonic plague, the Sylvatic plague is known to kill entire dog towns, including ferrets and prairie dogs. Other diseases include rabies, tularemia and human influenza, but they are not considered serious threats to ferrets.
Since 1986, there are about 700 black-footed ferrets in the wild and over 250 living in captive breeding facilities. For these black-footed ferrets to have a healthy population, they need 10,000 acres of healthy prairie dog colonies. They are being reintroduced in eleven different sites and scientists estimate that 10,000 acres of prairie dog colonies require 20,000 acres of land.
