Some of the most important prairie-saving activities are happening in backyards and school grounds across the country, where manicured lawns are being replaced with native grasses and wildflowers to attract a variety of wildlife and perhaps bring back just a small piece of the prairie.
Bison graze more efficiently than cattle and can better survive extremes in weather. Ranchers are experimenting with new ways of raising cattle, bringing back native grasses for grazing in order to restore and preserve the soil.īison ranching is gaining popularity, because bison meat is much leaner and healthier than beef. Many people are learning to imitate nature rather than control it. Rising interest in protecting the prairie may ensure that some of these areas will be saved. Much of the western prairie was never plowed, but was used for cattle grazing, so much more of it remains intact than the eastern tall grass prairie. In the future, scientists hope to research more about sylvatic plague, genetic diversity, ferret health, behavior in the wild, reproduction and semen cryopreservation, so that they can better help black-footed ferrets.Īlthough much of the grassland of North America has been destroyed, there are areas where original prairie still survives. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduction program has resulted in more than 7,000 black-footed ferret kits births across six zoos and more than 2,600 of those animals being reintroduced into the wild. Currently, 28 reintroduction sites cover parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Mexico, Canada and Mexico.Įach year, between 150 and 220 black-footed ferrets are released from their preconditioning programs into these sites about 4,500 ferrets have been released since the program's inception.As of 2011, the U.S. Ferrets will then be reintroduced into various sites in the western Great Plains. Some of the ferrets have been sent to the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado to prepare for release back into the wild, a process called "preconditioning." Preconditioning involves familiarizing the animals with burrows (underground tunnels) to increase the chance that they will survive in the wild. The breeding program maintains a core breeding population of 280 ferrets of prime breeding age (1 to 3 years old). Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce ferrets back into the wild. The ongoing recovery of black-footed ferrets is one of the Zoo's most successful conservation endeavors to date. In 1988, the Zoo was the first to receive offspring from those 18 and breed black-footed ferrets outside of Wyoming.Īs of May 2021, 1,029 black-footed ferrets have been born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, including 139 born by artificial insemination. The last remaining 18 wild animals were caught between 19 to establish a breeding center in Wyoming. The Zoo has been a leader in black-footed ferret conservation since a small population was discovered in 1981. Ferrets become sexually mature at 1 year of age, and their peak reproductive period is at about 3 to 4 years. Eventually, the young begin to hunt alone, and by September are usually independent and solitary. By late summer, the female leaves her kits in separate burrows during the day and gathers them together at night to hunt. Long after they stop nursing, they depend on their mother for meals of meat. Kits are about three-quarters grown by July when they first venture above ground. Black-footed ferret kits develop very rapidly and become increasingly active after their eyes open. Their dark markings appear at about 3 weeks of age and young kits begin to open their eyes about 35 days after birth. The kits are born blind and helpless, weighing only 0.2 to 0.3 ounces (5 to 9 gram) at birth, with thin, white hair covering their bodies. The average litter size is three to four young, but single kits, as well as litters of nine or ten, have been recorded. Breeding activity generally occurs in March and April after a gestation period of 41 to 43 days, a litter of kits is born.
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