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Mustela nigripes
The Black-footed Ferret is a endangered species, and only found in several isolated populations in the Western half of the country. We went to a population in Arizona where the AZ Game and Fish Dept was conducting a survey where volunteers come out and spotlight from sunset to sunrise searching for ferrets then try to trap them. This was a second fall survey so they could break their record for the whole year of ferrets caught. This guy we caught was the record breaker, and we actually caught him two night in a row. After you see their emerald green eye shine, you find the hole they went down, set a trap (you can see a trap in one of the pictures), place cups in surrounding holes, and check the trap every hour hoping for the ferret. Once caught, we take them to a van where they gas them with Isoflourine, PIT tag them, give them canine distemper vaccine and some penicillin. We then took him back to the hole we caught him at, threw a chunk of prairie dog into the hole as a snack, then released him. This is also the first spotting of this species on PN :)
6 Comments
Thanks Phil!
Great series! Love the story!
Very ferocious! My professor told us he saw a video that was placed in a burrow of them eating a prairie dog. Apparently they go up to the sleeping prairie dog, tap it on the shoulder to wake it up, then grab it by the throat until it dies then start eating it, that's pretty crazy!
Thanks so much for sharing your spotting and their story! They are neat little ferocious predators.
It was a very long weekend with no sleep and freezing temps, but it was so worth it! I am also glad so many people care about them and watch out for these guys year round. They don't get a ton of recaptures, which is great because that means they are breeding, but also bad because they don't have a super long life span. Their numbers are growing though in this population at least!
Terrific spotting Ashley! It is great to see people helping to save an endangered species!