Black-footed Ferret
Declared extinct twice. Proven wrong twice. The second time by a ranch dog named Shep
No confirmed photograph exists
Location
Great Plains, USA — Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana
Overview
The black-footed ferret is the only ferret native to North America. It was declared extinct in 1979 when the last known population in South Dakota collapsed. Two years later, a ranch dog in Meeteetse, Wyoming brought a dead one home — revealing an entirely new colony no one knew existed. That colony was nearly wiped out by plague and distemper by 1987, at which point the 18 remaining animals in the world were captured for an emergency breeding program. Today, over 300 roam the Great Plains from captive-bred reintroductions. It is one of the most dramatic near-extinctions and recoveries in American wildlife history.
Why haven't we found it?
The ferret's near-extinction was not accidental. For most of the 20th century, the US government actively poisoned prairie dog colonies — believing they competed with cattle for grass. Prairie dogs make up 90% of a black-footed ferret's diet and supply the burrows it lives in. By the time the poisoning campaign wound down, the ferret had been eliminated across most of its range without anyone realising it was happening.
How it was found
- 1
The captive breeding program at facilities across multiple US states has produced thousands of animals since 1987, with reintroduction sites established in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, and Canada.
- 2
In 2021, scientists cloned a black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann from a frozen cell line taken from a female who died in 1988 — introducing lost genetic diversity back into the population. She was the first cloned endangered American animal.
- 3
Annual population surveys use remote cameras and track stations across reintroduction sites. Some populations are now breeding successfully without human intervention.
Things worth knowing
- 1
The Wyoming ranch where Shep brought in the dead ferret in 1981 is now a wildlife management area. The landowners, John and Lucille Hogg, were initially reluctant to report the find, fearing government intervention on their property.
- 2
Black-footed ferrets spend about 90% of their lives underground, in the same prairie dog burrows they hunt. They are almost entirely nocturnal and extraordinarily hard to detect even where they are present.
- 3
Sylvatic plague — introduced to North America from Asia via shipping rats in the early 1900s — kills both ferrets directly and collapses their prairie dog prey colonies. It remains the primary threat to recovery. Oral plague vaccine baits are now distributed by drone across reintroduction sites.
- 4
The 18 animals captured in 1987 were so genetically similar — a result of the bottleneck — that the entire current population descended from just 7 founders who successfully reproduced. The 2021 clone introduced DNA from an eighth lineage.
- 5
Before European settlement, black-footed ferrets ranged across 12 US states and parts of Canada and Mexico, following the prairie dog colonies that covered an estimated 100 million acres of the Great Plains. That habitat is now reduced by over 95%.