Releasing Ferrets Into Their Prairie Home
Transcript
ROBYN BORTNER, FISH AND WILDLIFE SPECIALIST, USFWS NATIONAL
BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
You spend all this time inside raising ferrets and cleaning
up poop and all the other things. It’s
really rewarding to come out on the prairie on an evening like this and see the
animals in their natural habitat.
So these ferrets have all just finished their
pre-conditioning period. It’s about
30-days out in the pens. They learned to
live in burrows, eat prairie dogs, become accustomed to the weather patterns
and sounds and sights of living on the prairie.
They all passed so now they are all ready to be released.
KIMBERLY FRASER, EDUCATION SPECIALIST, USFWS NATIONAL
BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
Historically they really didn’t know how many black-footed
ferrets were in the wild [in] the turn of the century. About 98% of the Great
Plains had been plowed up by that point so habitat was lost. Then in 1979 they
were actually declared extinct. And then in 1981 it was re-discovered in
Meeteetse, Wyoming.
So a captive breeding program was started in about 1985 to
bring back the species from extinction. It’s a great program we bring in state
agencies and tribes to help us re-introduce the ferret once we raised them in
captivity.
JOHN HUGHES, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, USFWS NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED
FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
All the animals that are destined for release or even kept
in the breeding program need to pass medical evaluations. They have to have both canines intact, they
have to, you know, eyes in good condition.
They need to be at a healthy weight. At a gross level they need to be in
good enough condition that, given the environmental challenges that they are
going to face, they stand good chance of survival.
MARY WRIGHT, VETERINARIAN, USFWS NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED
FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
All of the ferrets that are released into the wild are
vaccinated for distemper, and they’re vaccinated for rabies and they’re
vaccinated for plague.
One of things other than human encroachment and agriculture
that reduced their population so significantly was probably canine distemper
and also bubonic plague or what they call Sylvatic plague.
Since they are so uniquely sensitive to canine distemper, we
worry that if we send them out un-vaccinated that we’ll lose them before they
have the chance to reproduce.
DAYLAN FIGGS, SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER, CITY OF FORT
COLLINS NATURAL AREAS DEPARTMENT:
Well the city of Fort Collins own two large parcels. We bought the parcels for a variety of
reasons but it included three to four thousand acres of prairie dogs that occur
here. And as part our management efforts
we always wanted to bring ferrets back to this landscape.
KEN MORGAN, PRIVATE LANDS PROGRAM MANAGER, COLORADO PARKS
AND WILDLIFE:
This is truly a voluntary incentive-based opportunity
whereby landowners are paid for the habitat that they are allowing us to use
for the recovery of these mammals.
The landowners do understand this ecosystem. That what they
make their living off of. All we have to
do is explain that they only piece that is missing out of this wonderful
ecosystem that they have is one of the top level carnivores. And that is what we are releasing here today.
KEN MORGAN SOT: “They have been habituated in the outside
pens but this is still a new experience for them because this is wide open
without any fences.”
DAYLAN FIGGS, SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER, CITY OF FORT
COLLINS NATURAL AREAS DEPARTMENT:
We have a good home for ferrets to go. We were at zero
ferrets and now this landscape has 42 ferrets on it, which is the first time a
long time that’s occurred.
MARY WRIGHT, VETERINARIAN, USFWS NATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED
FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER:
Well we’re lucky to have this unique species and we almost
didn’t have them. So if we can do anything to hedge our bets and keep them
alive out in the wild and let them prosper, I think that is worth doing.