focus on nature

A Rescue Mission Brings the Rare Black-footed Ferret Home Again

The wind blew constant-ly on the high plains that day with little to slow its velocity but a few strands of barbed wire. We were gathered beneath buff and salmon cliffs on the vast Aubrey Valley grasslands which sprawl north from historic State Route 66 near Seligman toward the Grand Canyon.

A flurry of activity inside a quarter-section of a one-acre enclosure of steel poles, wire mesh, and aluminum flashing riveted our attention. People wearing tan jumpsuits and rubber gloves with paper masks over their mouths and noses congregated around a square metal box partially buried in the ground.

A five-foot length of fourinch black plastic tubing extended from one side of the container, simulating the entrance tunnel of a prairie dog den. A wooden nest box, bedded with sawdust, nestled inside the metal case. A series of agitated chatters could be heard from within. A trapdoor was lifted, and the people climbed ladders to exit the enclosure. A few minutes later, a small head emerged from the open end of the tube. A collar with a transmitter and thin antenna encircled the creature's neck. It moved forward and firmly planted its front paws on the ground. On that day, March 27, 1996, history was made. For the first time in 65 years, a black-footed ferret was known to be on Arizona soil. It had been a long road for the ferret, starting even before its population in Arizona was allowed to dwindle until it flickered out like a candle in a prairie wind. With their populations in other Western states also dropping at an alarming rate, the black-footed ferret was one of the first mammals listed when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. Black-footed ferrets depend on prairie-dog towns for their survival. The small burrowing rodents provide essential food, as a prey species, and their labyrinthine dens and tunnels offer the ferrets shelter from inclement weather and predators, such as coyotes and raptors, as well as a place to whelp their young. The black-footed ferret's secretive nocturnal nature has proven oddly detrimental to its well-being. Many people who might have been concerned didn't even know the animal existed.

secretive nocturnal nature has proven oddly detrimental to its well-being. Many people who might have been concerned didn't even know the animal existed.

Some Indian tribes, including the Navajo Nation which owns the 534,000-acre Boquillas Ranch, where the Arizona reintroduction project took place, used pelts from the uncommon ferrets in medicinal and spiritual ceremonies.

In 1981 a population of black-footed ferrets was discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Five years later, canine distemper, a disease fatal to ferrets, had reduced the known number from 127 to 18. The survivors were taken into captivity to prevent species extinction and to provide the basis for a propagation program. This proved so successful that there are now approximately 400 black-footed ferrets in breeding facilities in the U.S. and Canada, including the Phoenix Zoo.

FOUR MALES HAD BEEN PLACED in the conditioning pens to learn about life outdoors. All came from the controlled environment of an indoor facility in Wyoming.

A couple of hours before midnight, the plains hid in darkness.

We were on a spying mission. A pair of night-vision binoculars and a spotting scope with the same capability allowed us to observe the ferrets on their normal schedule. Some food, in the form of ground-up rabbit, had been placed near the entrances to the tunnels that led to the nest boxes. In the grainy green-gray light of the scope that changes night into day, I saw the animals' facial features clearly. They were still too wary to leave completely the security of the artificial burrow. At least not while we were watching.

Around the outside of the conditioning pens, electrical wires set at varying heights discouraged visits from coyotes and badgers.

There were to be a total of 10 of these open-air enclosures, and 35 to 42 ferrets, including pregnant females, would be released between September and November during Arizona's first reintroduction program.

It took years of work and planning by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to arrive at this stage. Cooperation of the Navajo and Hualapai tribes also was indispensable.

I came to know the first four black-footed ferrets brought into Arizona by the names they were given where they were born: Comanche and Apache were the two adult males, both four years old; and Myles and Twitch, the two juveniles, neither a year old. Among the rarest mammals in North America, these animals represent the missing link in the plains ecosystem. They will soon occupy their rightful place among the pronghorn, coyotes, burrowing owls, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, and badgers.

Home again after a long absence and still flourishing when we checked a few months ago.