Endangered Species

The Black-Footed Ferret is an endangered species. This ferret relies almost entirely upon the prairie dog because the ferrets live in prairie dog burrows and eat prairie dogs. The prairie dog colonies have been reduced to less than 5% of the original area occupied because of habitat destruction, poisoning, shooting, and exotic disease (sylvatic plague). The Black-Footed Ferret is so reliant upon the prairie dog that as soon as the prairie dog population declines, the Ferret's population does too.