Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program

Captive Breeding The black-footed ferret captive breeding program was initiated to save North America's most endangered mammal from extinction. In October 1985, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, in cooperation with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, captured six black-footed ferrets from the last-known population near Meeteetse, WY to start a captive breeding population. The ferrets were taken to the Department's Sybille Wildlife Research and Conservation Education Center near Wheatland, WY. Two of the six ferrets were infected with canine distemper likely contracted in the wild, and since the animals were not isolated from each other, all six died of distemper. The disease was soon confirmed among Meeteetse's wild ferrets, diminishing hopes for their survival.
Biologists launched an emergency effort to capture all remaining animals. Five were caught in late 1985, 12 more in 1986, and by February 1987, the last known wild black-footed ferret was in captivity. Veterinarians vaccinated and quarantined the animals and all 18 survived. A recovery plan for captive breeding and reintroduction of black-footed ferrets was initiated in 1986. A workshop, faciltated by the IUCN--World Conservation Union's Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG), was conducted in 1986 with representatives from state and federal wildlife and land management agencies, and consultants with expertise in small population biology, mustelids, nutrition, reproduction, veterinary medicine and genetics.
Attempts to breed ferrets got off to a slow start. No kits were born during the ferrets' first breeding season in captivity in 1986. However, eight black-footed ferrets were born to two females in 1987 at Sybille. Seven survived, and were followed by 34 surviving kits in 1988, 58 in 1989, and 66 in 1990.
In 1988, the US Fish & Wildlife Service developed the "Black-footed Ferret Recovery Plan" which emphasized species preservation through natural breeding, development of assisted reproductive technology, and establishment of multiple reintroduction sites. The objective of the captive breeding program was to maintain 240 ferrets (90 males, 150 females) of prime breeding age (1-3 years old) in captivity, and subdivide the captive populaton into different locations in order to avoid catastrophic loss at a single facility. The strategy for the reproductive technology program was to support captive breeding efforts by developing artificial insemination using fresh or cryopreserved sperm. One high priority for protecting genetic diversity was to establish a "Black-footed Ferret Genome Resource Bank", a frozen repository of sperm from the most genetically valuable males.