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 PHOENIX - What's
about two feet long, furry, endangered, and making a comeback in Arizona? The answer: the black-footed
ferret, which is having its most successful year yet in our state since
reintroduction in 1996.
"This year is turning out to be our best year so far," says Steve
Goodman, an Arizona Game and Fish Department biologist who works on the
ferret reintroduction project, "and we are still doing surveys to count
more ferrets."
Biologists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct in the late 1970s, but
about 120 of the animals were found in the mid-1980s in Wyoming. In 1985, after two disease
outbreaks had killed most of the remaining ferrets, the last 18 were captured
to start a captive breeding program. Now their offspring live at eight reintroduction
sites in the United States and Mexico, including one in the Aubrey Valley in northwest Arizona. In that valley outside Seligman,
ferrets are periodically released into the wild with hopes they will thrive.
"We're seeing more and more signs of success," says Goodman.
"This year, we continue to see evidence that ferrets are reproducing in
the wild, and we're finding evidence that ferrets are surviving longer in the
wild."
Every year, biologists take high-powered spotlights out at night around the release
site in the Aubrey Valley. They do a sample count of
ferrets over several weeks in the fall. The team is still doing its survey
for this year, but already, the numbers are equal to what they were last
year. Biologists and volunteers counted two dozen ferrets, including 14 that
were clearly born in the wild since they didn't have the electronic markers
that scientists implant to identify individual animals.
In addition to being a release site, the Aubrey Valley also contains a preconditioning
and breeding facility. Captive-born ferrets are kept in outdoor pens to
precondition, or get them used to, new surroundings over the winter. Then,
they are bred in the spring before they're released. Biologists believe the
recent success of the program is related to these spring releases, which
began in 2001.
"We believe we're now seeing stable and possibly even increasing numbers
of ferrets in the wild," says Goodman, "although we're still
devising better methods to estimate the population. One black-footed ferret
can give birth to three to five kits each year."
Black-footed ferrets are related to weasels. They can grow to be up to two
feet long and can weigh up to 2 1/2 pounds. Their main source of food is the
prairie dog. One reason for the ferret's low numbers is that the government
killed thousands of prairie dogs during the 1900s because they were
considered pests. Before reintroduction, the last black-footed ferret found
in Arizona was in an area between Williams and Flagstaff in 1931.
The black-footed ferret reintroduction is a joint effort of the Arizona Game
and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The
Phoenix Zoo, Navajo Nation, Arizona State Land Department, Hualapai Nation, and the Cholla
Cattle Company.
Note: The Arizona
Game and Fish Department is looking for volunteers to help with future ferret
surveys. The next one will be scheduled for March or April. If you are
interested in helping with these nighttime spotlight surveys, please call the
field crew for the ferret project at (928) 422-0155.
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The
Arizona Game and Fish Department prohibits discrimination on the basis of
race, color, sex, national origin, age, or disability in its programs and
activities. If anyone believes that they have been discriminated against in
any of the AGFD’s programs or activities, including
employment practices, they may file a complaint with the Deputy Director, 2221 W. Greenway Rd. Phoenix, AZ 85023, (602) 789-3290, or with the Fish
and Wildlife Service, 4040 N. Fairfax Dr. Ste. 130, Arlington, VA 22203. Persons with a disability may
request a reasonable accommodation or this document in an alternative format
by contacting the Deputy Director as listed above.
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