Rare black-footed ferrets released in Northern Arizona’s first-ever wild nursery site.
Northern Arizona is the southern end of the black-footed ferret’s range. Here, one of the most endangered mammals in North America is reintroduced at very specific places selected based on prairie dog densities and cooperation with partners and landowners, including working ranches.
The hope is that ferrets will breed, successfully raise kits (baby ferrets) and reach the site’s carrying capacity at the nursery site. Once the ferret population has no more room to grow, future kits will be translocated to other sites. Because they would be born in the wild and would learn survival skills from their parents, the team expects that these ferrets will have a leg-up from the facility-trained kits and that their survival rates will further increase.
The rest is still unwritten 😜…
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Video of a black-footed ferret popping out of a burrow by Jessica Blackwood ...