Aug

9

2007
 
 

Critically endangered? Hah!



Black-footed ferrets laugh in the face of extinction, Wyoming survey shows

Survival? Easy when you know howIt doesn’t get much closer to the wire than going extinct in the wild, but the black-footed ferret Mustela nigripes appears to have shrugged that off as a minor inconvenience. Reporting their findings in Science this week, University of Wyoming scientists led by Martin Grenier provide evidence that a captive breeding and release program at Shirley Basin appears to be succeeding. Although 228 captive-born animals were released in 1991–1994, disease (plague and canine distemper) and scarcity of prey (the oft-hibernating, less-than-common white-tailed prairie dog Cynomys leucurus) meant that by 1997 only five ferrets could be traced. However, a survey in 2003 turned up an unexpected 52 animals, a number that has since increased to an estimated 223 of the furry little miracles. Population demography models suggest that, unlike the adult survival rate so crucial to most endangered species, survival through the first year is what counts for ferrets. They make it look so easy. Source: Grenier MB, McDonald DB & Buskirk SW (2007) Rapid population growth of a critically endangered carnivore. Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1144648

Related story in Conservation magazine: The Wheel Turns and Turns

Image © LuRay Parker | Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Filed Under Endangered species, Restoration, Monitoring | 

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