Black-footed ferrets are small predators that live in large prairie dog colonies. They once numbered in the tens of thousands, but were brought to the brink of extinction by the 1960s when they were listed as endangered. Although still endangered, they are starting to make a comeback, and Defenders of Wildlife is helping to make this a remarkable wildlife success story.
Why They’re Important
Black-footed ferrets are often referred to as a “flagship” species for the North American prairie. Their popularity and charismatic nature makes them a public symbol for saving the entire grassland ecosystem on which they and many other species depend. Saving black-footed ferrets from extinction will result in a healthier planet for future generations.
Because black-footed ferrets eat prairie dogs  and live in their burrows, they are completely dependent upon large prairie dog colonies for survival. But prairie dog colonies have been reduced to less than 5% of the area they originally occupied due to habitat destruction, poisoning, shooting, and exotic disease (sylvatic plague). The remaining colonies are relatively small and fragmented, and often separated by great distances. With the dramatic loss of prairie dogs came the loss of almost all black-footed ferrets as well. In fact, by 1986 only 18 black-footed ferrets remained.
What Defenders Is Doing to Help Black-footed Ferrets
As an official member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret recovery team, Defenders is helping to reintroduce black-footed ferrets and protect them once reintroduced. Because of the critical importance of prairie dogs to black-footed ferrets, Defenders is working to restore prairie dogs to new sites and prevent the destruction of prairie dog colonies in existing black-footed ferret areas, such as Conata Basin, South Dakota, one of the most important. We’re also helping a group ofranchers in Kansas who are fighting to save prairie dogs and their newly reintroduced ferret population from a century-old state law requiring the death of all prairie dogs.