Endangered black-footed ferrets reproduce in wild

Black-footed ferret

By Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News
January 31, 2006

One of North America's most-endangered species has begun to reproduce in the wild in Colorado and other Western states after being reintroduced, state wildlife officials said Monday.

Biologists and volunteers last fall found a female black-footed ferret in northwest Colorado that they deduced was born in the wild because it did not have embedded microchips, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

The discovery was a stunning sign that a species once thought extinct is getting a footing on the path to recovery. Since the reintroduction program began in 2001, 186 black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced in the Wolf Creek Management Area, which covers 43,000 acres in Rio Blanco and Moffat counties northeast of Rangely.

All of them had a microchip, similar to a supermarket bar code, embedded in both head and tail, said Pam Schnurr, a wildlife conservation biologist with the state agency in Grand Junction.

"The chances of them losing a chip are nil," she said.

The presence of 13 ferrets was confirmed in a count between August and December, including the female that must have been born in the wild to captive-born parents.

"We caught her in a trap and were able to verify that she was not chipped and was a young of the year," Schnurr said.

The wildlife agency also said volunteers spotted five more ferrets, but they were unable to confirm the sightings.

Ferrets in the Rio Blanco County part of the Coyote Basin study area, which is primarily in Utah, also have reproduced in the wild, she said.

"Releasing ferrets is one thing, but getting the population to produce young is the first critical step in creating a self-sustaining, black-footed ferret population," Schnurr said.

Similarly, captive-born ferrets have begun to reproduce in the wild in five other Western states where they have been reintroduced, she said.

Black-footed ferrets were once considered to be extinct, but a small wild population was discovered in southern Wyoming in the 1980s. The 18 located there were the foundation of breeding programs conducted by zoos and wildlife agencies that led to the release of animals back into the wild.

Locating only 13 of the 186 ferrets released in the Wolf Creek Management Area "may seem low, but they are very, very difficult to track," said Rick Krueger, who's a biologist with the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Grand Junction.

"They are nocturnal," he said. "They rarely come above ground."

The black-footed ferrets live symbiotically with prairie dogs, eating the prairie dogs and then occupying their burrow, Krueger said.

Biologists monitor the ferret populations each fall by using spotlights to locate them, according to the DOW.

Spotlighting is scheduled Sept. 6-15. Spotlighting is conducted by groups of two or three people working with backpacks weighing 20 to 25 pounds. Volunteers work from about 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for two consecutive nights.

Information: DOW Northwest Volunteer Coordinator Linda Edwards at 970-255-6145.

Black-footed ferrets

• Latin name: Mustela nigripes

• Description: 24 inches long; 1 to 2 pounds; buff-yellow coat with white face and black mask over eyes and nose

• Life span: 3 to 5 years

• Habitat: Grassland prairie to semidesert shrublands; once ranged from the Great Plains to mountain parks and Western valleys

• Food: Prairie dogs, some mice, ground squirrels, rabbits, birds, reptiles and insectsSources: Wild Animals Of North America By The National Geographic Society; Wild Mammals Of North America By Joseph Chapman And Georg ...