Wyoming’s Black-Footed Ferret is a rock star at the Phoenix
Zoo. In fact, you might think the
elusive little critter was native to Arizona. Not so.
An obscure
place in our state was the host of one of the most impressive recovery stories
of an extinct animal that has occurred in America over the last several
decades.
In 1979, the
Black Footed Ferret was declared extinct in the world. The famous naturalist and artist John James
Audubon first painted and published reports of the critter around 1846.
In 1981,
Lucille Hogg’s pet dog Shep dragged home a carcass of an unusual animal at
their ranch home near Meeteetse. Lucille
was a fixture in Meeteetse at her Lucille’s Café. She and husband John took the odd critter to
a local taxidermist to talk about possibly getting it mounted.
The
taxidermist took one look at it and after a long pause said he needed to make a
phone call. When he returned he said
this animal was not only an endangered species, but it was extinct!
Wyoming Game
and Fish officials descended en masse on Meeteetse and the Hogg home. The hunt
was on for the rest of the animals.
This was an
amazing coincidence involving a pesky dog and some folks who thought they had
found a really odd-looking animal. Thankfully
that taxidermist was alert enough to contact the Game and Fish.
Our local
newspaper in Lander along with most newspapers in Wyoming ran news stories and
ads in the late 1970s trying to locate any colonies of the elusive nocturnal
animal. None were found.
Ferrets are
common in America as pets. But these are not native. These are originally from
Europe. The only local ferret in America is the Black-Footed Ferret, which originally
roamed all over North America.
In a recent
column, I wrote about how reliant the American Indians were on the
buffalo. Well, in this case, the prairie
dog is the buffalo to the Black-Footed Ferret. The latter’s entire existence is
based on killing and eating prairie dogs.
One Game and
Fish biologist described the relationship as the prairie dog providing “room
and board” for the ferrets, since the ferrets also live in abandoned prairie
dog towns. One study showed that an adult female Black-Footed Ferret and her
litter of kits killed and ate over 1,000 prairie dogs a year for their diet.
This ferret looks a lot like a mink
but the two animals are not related. It has a close relative in Europe called
the Polecat, not to be confused with the expression “doggone polecat” to
describe a bad guy in old-time Wyoming.
Bob Oakleaf
and Andrea Orabona, non-game biologists of the G&F, worked on the project,
which is featured in a video on YouTube.
Back in the
1980s, G&F staffers tried to locate the rest of the pack of ferrets, using
an old-style trap and then some huge hand-held antennas. They walked around
trying to track the ferrets, which had radio collars installed on them.
Ultimately
they found over 50 of the ferrets and the small colony seemed to be doing well.
But this did
not last long.
The reason the
Black-Footed Ferret was declared extinct in 1979 was because of a disease
called plague, which had been wiping out prairie dogs and killing ferrets at
the same time.
By 1985, the number of Meeteetse ferrets was
down to 18 and the decision was made to capture all of them and put them into a
captive facility to prevent further deaths leading to extinction.
The initial
facility was in Sybille Canyon. As the G&F was able to breed more and more
ferrets, other places around the country got involved, including Colorado
facilities and the Phoenix Zoo.
Today, ferrets
have been re-released to the outdoors. A big event was held in Meeteetse on
July 26, 2016 where the critters were re-introduced to their original home area. There are now more than 1,500 ferrets running
loose and they seem to be thriving. Not good news for prairie dogs, though.
Meanwhile, I
even bought a tee shirt at the Phoenix Zoo, which was emblazoned with the big
photos of the Black-Footed Ferret and a big logo for the zoo.
I cannot blame
Arizonans for wanting to take some credit for this amazing survival success
story. But in the brief information piece about the ferret, Wyoming was hardly
mentioned and the location where they were found was spelled “Meteetse,” rather
than the correct spelling of Meeteetse.
Oh well.
The zoo has
provided over 400 Black-Footed Ferrets, which have been re-introduced into the
wild. So, I grudgingly have to give them a little bit of credit after all.
Not sure I
will wear that tee shirt back in Wyoming, though.
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