The black-footed ferret teetered on the brink of total extinction, but is now something of a shining example of what can be done to turn the trend and save a species from disappearing forever.
Pat Fargey, Species at Risk/Ecosystem Management Specialist with Grasslands National Park in Southern Saskatchewan said the black-footed ferret, which is a mid-sized member of the weasel family that inhabits grassland ecosystems where prairie dogs are present, "were quite wide-ranging.
They followed the Prairie dog." He added there is even evidence the ferret might have survived away from their almost exclusive foot source the Prairie dog.
"There's records of ferrets in Alberta but not Prairie dogs."
The BFF has held a special place for First Nations people.
"Native Americans knew of the close association between prairie dogs and ferrets, all of whom have coexisted for many thousands of years," detailed the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Implementation Team (BFFRIT) website at www.blackfootedferret.org.
"Skeletons of both ferrets and prairie dogs have been found in camps occupied by prehistoric Indians, and various tribes had different beliefs about ferrets. Pispiza etopta sapa, meaning "black-faced prairie dog" is the Sioux Indian name for the black-footed ferret.
The Pawnees call it "ground dog" and gave the ferrets special powers in their stories. The Navajo Nation refers to the ferret as Dlo ii liz-hinii and used ferret body parts and skins for medicinal purposes and ceremonial adornments.
The Cheyenne and Blackfeet tribes decorated chiefs' headdresses with their furs. The Hualapai Indians, who traditionally regard all living things that come out at night as sacred, call the black-footed ferret Na-math. The Crow used ferret sk
ins in sacred ceremonies as medicine bundles. These skins, stuffed and decorated with leather, cloth, bells and feathers can be seen in several museums in the West.
In Saskatchewan the ferret and Prairie dog made the lower Frenchman River Valley area, now part of the Grasslands Park, their home. Fargey said they particularly like badlands areas.
"There's extensive badlands on both side of the river," he said.
While a seemingly ideal area for the black-footed ferret, its numbers went into decline in the early 1900s and by 1937 was declared extinct in Saskatchewan.
"We really don't understand what happened to cause them to disappear in Canada," said Fargey.
There is a likelihood efforts to poison coyotes, and before that wolves, to protect livestock, was a contributing factor, but Fargey said not all Prairie dogs were eliminated, so the ferret's demise is something of a mystery.
Of course the BFF had always been something of a mystery.
"Throughout their history, black-footed ferrets have been elusive," explained the BFFRIT website. "None of the early explorers, mountain men, or pioneers who crossed the Great Plains by wagon-train ever mentioned ferrets. They were occasionally listed in fur company records from the upper Missouri River basin in the early to mid-1800s. Black-footed ferrets were not officially recognized by scientists until 1851 in a book by naturalist John James Audubon and the Reverend John Bachmann.
"Audubon and Bachman first described black-footed ferrets in 1851 from a single specimen found near the lower waters of the Platte River. They were not mentioned again by science until 1857. Even at the time they were thought to be rare, secretive and elusive.
"They were so elusive to humans that shortly after Audubon's description, controversy brewed over their true existence. For over 25 years no other specimens were obtained, nor were they observed in the wild. Also, the original specimen had disappeared, adding fuel to the controversial fire.
"Then, in 1874, Dr. Elliot Coues took on the challenge of assisting Audubon and issued a request through the popular magazine American Sportsmen for specimens and was soon rewarded. With these he was able to augment Audubon's description of black-footed ferrets and relieve the natural history community of this controversy. Black-footed ferrets did indeed exist."
In the end the ferret population in the United States did not fare much better than it had in Southern Saskatchewan.
Fargey said pressures, including that of canine distemper and sylvatic plague cut into numbers to the point there was thought to be only one colony left on the continent. When that colony began to decline there was a debate about live catching the ferret to start a captive breeding program.
"They tried that and failed," he said, adding the colony disappeared and the thinking was the black-footed ferret was completely extinct.
Then in the 1980s a colony was discovered in Wyoming.
"It was a pretty remote part of Wyoming," said Fargey, but not so remote that diseases didn't find and threaten the ferrets. In spite of the lack of earlier captive breeding success "they decided to trap up the last 18."
From those 18, only some actually contributed to the breeding program which was initiated. In spite of the limited base, the program has been a success with numbers in the 1,000 range today, said Fargey.
"The Species Survival Plan(R) is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (in Canada it's CAZA)," said Paul Marinari, Fish and Wildlife Biologist ,US Fish and Wildlife Service and the BFFRIT . "Our job is to minimize the loss of genetic material through managed breeding (we pair the least related individuals) while maximizing the number of animals in order to release them annually to the wild. We now have a core breeding population of 280 individuals (this population is skewed towards females and includes one, two, three, and four-year-old animals."
Fargey said there are now several captive breeding centres, including the lone Canadian site at the Toronto Zoo. Each year researchers actually meet, and with a stud book (a listing of breeding males) arrange matings for the breeding season.
The black-footed ferrets had been reintroduced in the wild in the United States and Mexico following the start of breeding program, but had remained extirpated in Canada until the Grassland Parks release.
"The Toronto Zoo has been a member of the captive breeding program for a number of years," said Marinari. "For over 10 years, Canadian, US and Mexican partners have discussed returning the ferret into Grasslands National Park. After years of meetings, assessing habitat, gaining support of local land owners and review of Species At Risk plans, BFFs were reintroduced into Grasslands National Park GNP is the northernmost part of the BFF's historic range. A combination of ferrets born in Canada and the US were transferred in both 2009 and 2010."
The Grasslands National Park release starting in 2009, was chronicled in a documentary by Kenton Vaughan, formerly of the Yorkton area (see related story this page).
Fargey said ideally they would like to see a ferret population of about 100 in the park, if habitat allows. He added they are going to have to expand the range of the Prairie dog in the park to achieve the desired ferret numbers.
"There'll need to be more habitat in the future for the ferrets to be self-sustaining," he said, adding there are some areas where people farm now which could sustain Prairie dog populations to sustain more ferrets.
The reintroduction of the ferret seems like a major investment of time and effort, and Fargey was asked why that was warranted.
"I think we do have an obligation to the species we do have," he said.
In the case of the ferret, Fargey they don't dominate ecosystem the way wolves do at Yellowstone. In fact, they are reliant on another species to survive. "They live off the back of the Prairie Dog," he said.
But, he said there he believes it is important to protect species indigenous to Canada, and that includes the ferret, especially in terms of a grasslands ecosystem.
"The BFF is one of over 130 species that rely on the prairie dog ecosystem," said Marinari. "This ecosystem, which runs down the backbone of North America, has been reduced by over 98 per cent. By saving the black-footed ferret we ensure protection to a myriad of species for future generations. The BFF is the only native ferret to North America and one of only three ferret species worldwide."
Reintroducing black-footed ferrets in Canada also contributes to the North American ferret conservation effort by re-establishing a wild-functioning ferret population at the northern edge of the species' distribution.
In the case of the Grasslands Park reintroducing native species is something they have focused attention on in the past, bringing the swift fox and bison back to the wild Prairies.
"BFFs are one of the primary predators on prairie dogs. The BFF is one of the missing pieces to a healthy prairie ecosystem," said Marinari.
Fargey said there is something unique about seeing wildlife in its natural habitat, and not in a cage, or behind a fence.
"When you see a bison on the native Prairie without a fence in the background it's a much more compelling experience," he said.
It was equally compelling to hear about the discovery of the first black-footed ferrets born on the Saskatchewan Prairie in more the seven decades, he added.
"That was exciting to hear about in July (2010). I wasn't with them that night, but it was exciting," he said.
