The Black-footed Ferret now calls Grassland National Park home for the first time since the early 20 th century. Home to rare animals, over 70 species of grass, and 50 different wildflowers, this ecosystem is essential to their survival. This seems like a bold statement, but with our forests and oceans getting a lot of needed attention, this vital landscape goes unnoticed. The Prairie Grasslands ecosystem is the most endangered on our planet. There is an urgency to not only preserve their new wild populations, but to share the importance of the Grasslands. Reclaiming their home in the Prairie Grasslands of North America is still an uncertain task. ![]() Habitat destruction due to suburban and urban development leads to the loss of their main food supply, the Prairie Dog. Exotic illnesses like the sylvatic plague and canine distemper threaten populations. Currently, Grasslands National Park houses the largest population of Black-footed Ferrets in all of western Canada.īlack-footed Ferrets are still highly endangered. Their territory once spanned from Northern Mexico, upwards throughout the American Mid-West, and ended in the grasslands of southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since the 1980s, Black-footed Ferrets have only been bred, born and raised in captivity. Reintegrating the Black-footed Ferret into Canada’s Prairie Grasslands has had its ups-and-downs. Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated few, the Black-footed Ferret’s Canadian population in the wild is returning to numbers no one thought possible. In captivity, they can live to nine years, but in the wild, three years is the average lifespan. The males are generally larger than the females, but only slightly, their lengths varying from 18-24 inches. The program gives researchers the opportunity to study them in close-quarters while rebuilding the population. The Toronto Zoo has been working on a recovery plan for the Canadian population of the Black-footed Ferret since 1992. ![]() The Black-footed Ferret is now the rarest mammal in North America, their total population being only 18 by 1987. There wasn’t a shred of hope in seeing these creatures in their natural habitat again, until a small population was discovered on a farm in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Ranchers and farmers consumed their territory, dividing the ferret’s habitat.īy 1974, the Black-footed Ferret was believed to be globally extinct in the wild. The agricultural boom in the early 1900s took its toll and resulted in the species being severely threatened in the 1930s. Courtesy of Pixabay Desperate Times for the BFF
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