Fact Sheet
Black-Footed Ferret
Black Footed Ferret, Photo: U.S. Geological Survey
Black Footed Ferret, © Mike Lockhart

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.

Visit our Species at Risk: Black-footed Ferret page to learn more about what Defenders is doing to protect Black-footed Ferrets.

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© Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski
In the Magazine
Vaccinating prairie dogs may be the key to saving rare black-footed ferrets
Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, © Justin Morris
Fact Sheet
The black-tailed prairie dog is a member of the squirrel family. Of the five species of prairie dogs in western North America, only the black-tailed prairie dog lives in the Great Plains.
Species at Risk
The five species of prairie dogs were once likely more than one billion strong, and their colonies covered roughly 100 million acres. Since the late 1800s, their numbers have been reduced by at least 95 percent.