Ferret, Black-footed

Physical Features

The Black-footed Ferrets belong to the weasel family that all have anal scent glands. Their coat is usually white or buff having areas of light to dark brown on their back that varies according to the individual and the season. The top of their head and forehead is dark brown and they have a black facemask with a distinct white brow spot above the border of each eye. They also have a very distinct cleft chin. Their legs and the tip of their tail are black in color. The males are larger than the females measuring 18 to 24 inches long with a body weight of up to 2 1/2 pounds. The Black-footed Ferret has large front feet that it uses for digging.

Habitat

Black-footed Ferrets were once found on black-tailed prairie dog colonies across the Great Plains from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and on white-tailed and Gunnison's prairie dog colonies across the intermountain west. They had totally disappeared from the wild by 1986. They have since been reintroduced to 15 locations within their former range in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Chihuahua, Mexico.

Diet

Black-footed Ferrets are carnivorous with the prairie dogs making up to 90% of its diet. It can feed on over 100 prairie dogs in one year. They also feed on ground squirrels, small rodents, rabbits and birds.

Meat

Black-footed Ferrets have pleasant tasting meat with similar taste to that of chicken.

Behavior

Black-footed Ferrets are solitary animals apart from during the mating season and when raising their young. Their mating season in spring takes place over three days. The gestation period lasts for six weeks and females give birth to litters of three to five kits in summer. They have a lifespan of three to five years. Black-footed Ferrets eat, sleep and raise their young in prairie dog burrows, and spend about 90% of their time underground sleeping during the day and hunting at night. They once numbered in the tens of thousands but the extensive destruction of their habitat and exotic diseases in the 1900s left them almost extinct with only 18 remaining in 1986. Today, they are making a comeback, with approximately 750 black-footed ferrets in the wild, and another 250 living in captive breeding facilities.

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