Harsh Reality of Saving Endangered Ferrets
April 7, 2015 - Endangered black-footed
ferrets that were born and raised in captivity must learn to hunt before they can be released into the wild on the American prairie. At a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conservation center in Colorado,
ferrets go through a 30-day “preconditioning” period. That's when they're introduced to their primary prey in the wild: the prairie dog.
Watch this video about raising black-footed ferret babies.
Transcript
Voice of JOHN HUGHES, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, US
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
For a carnivore like black-footed ferrets,
because we rely so heavily on captive-rearing and we’ve had the animals in
captivity for so many generations, we do run the risk of inadvertently
domesticating the animal. So
preconditioning is a big part of that.
You know instilling those wild behaviors.
JOHN HUGHES, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
When reintroduction started in 1991 ferrets
were released straight out of cage. And
research showed that survival of preconditioned kits was ten times higher than
kits that were released straight out of a cage.
KIMBERLY FRASER, EDUCATION SPECIALIST, US
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
Here was a species that had been initially
listed on the endangered species list, declared extinct. Its significance is that it is part of an
ecosystem that is highly underrepresented in the world.
Out here on the Great Plains we know that
where its habitat—where it lives—there’s other species like prairie dogs. And, you know the ferret is obligated to the
prairie dog.
JOHN HUGHES, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
Prairie dogs constitute anywhere from 65 to
90 percent of their prey. And you really need to imprint on them on that prey
species if you want them to succeed. We
precondition the animals for a 30-day period. Ideally they kill four prairie
dogs during that time.
What a ferret tries to do is get a prairie
dog around the neck and crush its windpipe and asphyxiate the animal. Many
times the first prairie dog that’s introduced, you know, they are actually
quite intimidated by it. And a prairie
dog is a pretty formidable piece of prey.
We’ve had ferrets injured during the process. We’ve actually had ferrets killed by prairie
dogs in the preconditioning pens. And it’s a tough thing, you know, for a
ferret to kill.
It’s almost like a whirling dervish or
something but you’ll see a ferret just kind of roll around with a prairie dog,
trying to get the upper hand and get it’s jaws around its neck. And once it become incapacitated they’ll drag
it down a burrow.
JOHN HUGHES on video: “You don’t want to be hand-feeding them, I
guess. But you want some pursuit and
there needs to be a kill in the burrow.
And you can hear what’s going on
right now. Which is good. It’s gruesome but good from our
standpoint. But ideally, the animal will
go into the burrow, there will be a pursuit in the burrow and then the ferret
kill it in the burrow itself.
JOSH ROTH, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE TECHNICIAN, US
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
We prefer to feed it prairie dogs to them
beforehand just so that they get used to the taste of exactly what their
eating. However, prairie dogs something
that are just readily available. So we
supplement with rat because it’s basically the closest thing that we can get
that’s easily purchased.
This is their natural state—killing an animal
and eating the animal. That’s what they
have to do in the wild to survive.
JOHN HUGHES, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
When they’re finished with the
preconditioning process at thirty days we trap them up, bring them into a holding facility and that’s their last
stop before they are released at one of our reintroduction sites.
It’s a bit of a leap of faith for us because
our animal caretakers, as you might imagine, get quite attached to these animals. They have a lot invested in them. They see them from the day they’re born till
the day they go out the door. We need to accept some losses and we need to try
and equip them as best we’re able to survive out in the wild. And for ferrets,
at the preconditioning has been the key to that. So, for the folks that work here it’s kind of
a case of letting go and just hoping you see them again the next year.
