Black-Footed Ferret (captive)

This photo was taken at Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Program in Colorado. The black-footed ferret is considered to be the rarest mammal in North America. In 1988, the U.S. 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. A high priority is placed on protecting genetic diversity so the "Black-footed Ferret Genome Resource Bank" was established. This is a frozen repository of sperm from the most genetically valuable males. Ferrets were released back into the wild in Wyoming in 1991, in South Dakota and Montana in 1994, and in Arizona in 1998. The Colorad