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Black Footed Ferret Scientific name : Mustela Nigripes ). By, Reyane Alfraih. The Black Footed Ferret!.
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Black FootedFerretScientific name: Mustela Nigripes) By, Reyane Alfraih
The Black Footed Ferret! This animal is black, brown, and white. Its white on its face with a black streak across its eyes. Its also white on its throat. The rest of its body is blackish, brown (that includes its stomach, legs, tail, head, and back). They can get up to 18-24 inches long, with a 5-6 inch tail. They can way up to two and a half lbs. It also has all black feet!
Where are all the Black Footed Ferrets located in Kansas? There has been no confirmed record since 1957 of a wild black footed ferret, so its unknown if any are left in Kansas.
How many are left in Kansas? • In Kansas these animals lived from the western two-thirds of the state (its prey the prairie dog also lived there). Disease and persecution of prairie dogs led to the death by poisoning or starvation of black-footed ferrets throughout Kansas. Last time one was spotted in Kansas was 1957. It is believed no more live in Kansas. But currently in all America there is around 1000 left.
Habitat? • Black footed ferrets live in prairie dog burrows, so they depend on them for making their homes, also for food! Its usually found in grass prairies!
Food Web! • The Prairie dog is the Black Footed Ferrets favorite thing to eat, (they also eat squirrels, small birds, small rodents, rabbits, and other small animals.) But the black ferret has many predators to it, such as: Coyotes, great horned owls, golden eagles, prairie falcons, foxes, badgers, bobcats, and other large carnivores. As you can see they are no too strong in the food web.
Why Endangered? The Black footed ferrets were declared an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife services in 1967. • This animal became endangered for these main reasons, farmers hated the prairie dogs for doing serious damage to their farms, they tried to kill all of them, therefore the ferrets lost their main food supply. They're also hunted by many predators, but the ferrets don’t know how to protect themselves from predators. (They very much lack in survival skills). This all caused their endangerment.
Reproduction: Black Footed Ferrets mate in March and April (so they only try to reproduce 2 months out of the year. Their gestation period is from 41-43 days. They usually have 3-4 kits, but some can have up to 6. Death: In the wild, ferrets live between three to four years. Those in captivity can survive eight to nine years. Life Cycle: It first starts as a kit, then it goes to its teens, after it goes to its most mature stage and Becomes an adult. They spend most of their time in underground burrows made by prairie dogs, and go out at night To hunt. Biotic potential!
Species Recovery Plan To get these Ferrets back , five zoos, have partnered with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in an aggressive captive breeding and reintroduction program that is making progress toward recovering the native ferret population, after finding some in Wyoming, they have been doing there best to get the Black Footed Ferret Population back up!