spend all this time inside a raising
ferrets and cleaning up poop and all the
other things it’s really rewarding to
come out on the Prairie evening like
this and see the animals in their
natural habitat
today spirits have all just finished
their preconditioning period um it’s
about 30 days that on the Pens they
learn to live in burrows III dogs become
accustomed to the weather patterns and
sounds and sights of living on the
Prairie they all past it so now they’re
ready to be released historically they
really didn’t know how many black footed
ferrets were in the wild 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 in 1981
they were rediscovered 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 reintroduce the fair
once we’ve raised them in captivity all
the animals that are destined for
release or even kept in the breeding
program need to you know pass medical
evaluations they you know have to have
both canines intact they have to be you
know eyes and good condition they need
to be at a healthy weight
at a gross level they need to be in good
enough condition that you know given the
environmental challenges they’re going
to face that they stand a good chance of
survival
all of the ferrets that are released
into the wild
are vaccinated for distemper and their
vaccine for rabies and they’re
vaccinated for plague one of the things
other than human encroachment an
agriculture that reduce their
populations so significantly it 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
unvaccinated that we’ll lose them before
they have a chance to reproduce
well the city for Collins owns 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 as part of our
management efforts we always wanted to
bring ferrets back to this landscape
this is truly a voluntary
incentive-based opportunity whereby land
owners are paid for the habitat that
they are allowing us to use for the
recovery of these mammals land owners do
understand this ecosystem that’s what
they make their living off of all we
have to do is explain that the only
piece that is missing out of this
wonderful ecosystem that they have is
one of the top-level carnivores and
that’s what we’re releasing here today
they’ve been habituated and outside pens
but this is still a new experience for
them because it’s a wide-open without
any fences we’ve have a good home for
threats to go we were at zero ferrets
and now this landscape has 42 ferrets on
it which is the first time in a long
time that’s occurred well we’re lucky to
have this unique species and we almost
didn’t have them yeah what well done 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’s worth
doing
me
ferrets and cleaning up poop and all the
other things it’s really rewarding to
come out on the Prairie evening like
this and see the animals in their
natural habitat
today spirits have all just finished
their preconditioning period um it’s
about 30 days that on the Pens they
learn to live in burrows III dogs become
accustomed to the weather patterns and
sounds and sights of living on the
Prairie they all past it so now they’re
ready to be released historically they
really didn’t know how many black footed
ferrets were in the wild 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 in 1981
they were rediscovered 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 reintroduce the fair
once we’ve raised them in captivity all
the animals that are destined for
release or even kept in the breeding
program need to you know pass medical
evaluations they you know have to have
both canines intact they have to be you
know eyes and good condition they need
to be at a healthy weight
at a gross level they need to be in good
enough condition that you know given the
environmental challenges they’re going
to face that they stand a good chance of
survival
all of the ferrets that are released
into the wild
are vaccinated for distemper and their
vaccine for rabies and they’re
vaccinated for plague one of the things
other than human encroachment an
agriculture that reduce their
populations so significantly it 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
unvaccinated that we’ll lose them before
they have a chance to reproduce
well the city for Collins owns 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 as part of our
management efforts we always wanted to
bring ferrets back to this landscape
this is truly a voluntary
incentive-based opportunity whereby land
owners are paid for the habitat that
they are allowing us to use for the
recovery of these mammals land owners do
understand this ecosystem that’s what
they make their living off of all we
have to do is explain that the only
piece that is missing out of this
wonderful ecosystem that they have is
one of the top-level carnivores and
that’s what we’re releasing here today
they’ve been habituated and outside pens
but this is still a new experience for
them because it’s a wide-open without
any fences we’ve have a good home for
threats to go we were at zero ferrets
and now this landscape has 42 ferrets on
it which is the first time in a long
time that’s occurred well we’re lucky to
have this unique species and we almost
didn’t have them yeah what well done 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’s worth
doing
me
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