| enzootic plague reduces black-footed ferret (mustela nigripes) survival in montana. | black-footed ferrets (mustela nigripes) require extensive prairie dog colonies (cynomys spp.) to provide habitat and prey. epizootic plague kills both prairie dogs and ferrets and is a major factor limiting recovery of the highly endangered ferret. in addition to epizootics, we hypothesized that enzootic plague, that is, presence of disease-causing yersinia pestis without any noticeable prairie dog die off, may also affect ferret survival. we reduced risk of plague on portions of two ferret rein ... | 2010 | 20158329 |
| the black-footed ferret: on the brink of recovery? | in an attempt to save the species from extinction, the last remaining 18 black-footed ferrets (mustela nigripes) were trapped up from the wild to initiate a captive breeding program. nearly 30 years later more than 8,000 black-footed ferrets have been produced in captivity and approximately 4,100 animals have been reintroduced into 20 sites in eight us states (arizona, new mexico, utah, colorado, kansas, wyoming, south dakota and montana), mexico and canada. however, full recovery of the species ... | 2014 | 25091909 |