Biologists Prepare For a Third Release of Black-Footed Ferrets in Western Wyoming

Meeteetse, WY.  –    Biologists are planning a third release of black-footed ferrets later this year in Park County, Wyoming.

The black-footed ferret population has climbed past 9,000 and is still on the rise, which is good news, as the species was thought to be extinct or near extinction. A tiny colony was discovered outside Meeteetse in 1981, when a dog on the Pitchfork Ranch brought a black-footed ferret home.

35 Black-footed ferrets were re-introduced onto two ranches outside Meeteetse in July of 2016, with another 13 released in late summer of the following year.

A captive-breeding program located in Fort Collins, Colorado, has helped to raise and re-introduce black-footed ferrets at several locations in Colorado, Montana and other western U.S. states. Part of the process at the facility is to train the young ferrets, as they are raised, to catch prairie dogs, which is their main source of food.