Webinar: Ferrets Back from the Brink
Aired December 14, 2022
Ashley Peery:
Hey everyone. My name is Ashley Peery and I'm an educator at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. I'm a blonde-haired woman wearing a blue sweater, and in my background is a wall with some framed schematic drawings. On the screen, you can see an image of some very adorable black-footed ferret kits, as well as the date, time, and title of today's program. You're here for Ferrets Back from the Brink. This is the third program in our Shared Planet Shared Health series. This is a monthly webinar series exploring the connections between the health of humans, the health of animals, and the health of the environment, which is also known as One Health. I am excited that you're here today for this program, which is actually a continuation of programming connected to the exhibit, Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World. The Outbreak Exhibit recently reopened at the Natural History Museum in a bilingual English Spanish format, and we are keeping the One Health conversations going with this new version of the exhibit and the new series, the webinar series that you're seeing today.
So whether it's your first time joining us or you've attended a natural history webinar before, we're so glad that you're here. And before we get started, we do need to go through a few housekeeping notes. So first, the discussion offers closed captioning. You are able to turn those on or off using the CC button, which you should see at the bottom of your Zoom window. The next reminder for you guys is as you have your questions as they come to you, go ahead and drop them into the Q&A box. The Q&A is at the top or the bottom of your screen, and we really want to get through as many of your questions as we can. And that Q&A goes really fast, so get those questions in as soon as you think of them. The Q&A box is also where we will share any relevant links during the program, so keep your eyes there or check there because things will pop up during the presentation and the flow of today's program, we're going to start with a presentation from our speaker, Paul Marinari.
After Paul's presentation, I will join him on screen to take your questions. So let's go ahead and introduce today's speaker. Paul Marinari is a supervisory wildlife biologist. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology and anthropology from the University of Delaware and a master's degree in zoology and physiology from the University of Wyoming. Throughout his career, Paul has worked for many federal agencies, including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and US Fish and Wildlife. From 1996 to 2012, Paul was the onsite manager at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Black-Footed Fair Conservation Center. In this job, he played a major role linking the offsite breeding initiatives with reintroduction in the animal's original habitat.
Paul has conducted collaborative research in reproduction, nutrition, genomics, reintroduction preparation, and monitoring of reintroduced animals. As the senior curator at Smithsonian's Nationals Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, he ensures that the living collection is linked to sustainable population management through scientific research and improved animal care. He continues to serve as the black-footed ferret, population manager and stud bookkeeper, working with a variety of federal, state, tribal and non-government organizations, along with many zoological facilities throughout North America. So welcome, Paul.
Paul Marinari:
Thank you, Ashley, and welcome everyone. As Ashley mentioned, I am going to be discussing black-footed ferrets. I'm going to turn off my camera just to save some bandwidth today, and really look forward to you being able to hear this story about one of North America's most endangered species. So today, I'm going to talk to you about the black-footed ferret. This species is one of the most endangered in the world. And here at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, we are working to do our best, with our many partners, to bring it back from the brink of extinction. Next slide.
Of course, when working with an endangered species, you have to really understand everything you can about the species you're dealing with. Worldwide, there are actually only three ferret species. The European pole cat, which has been domesticated and is common. This is the species you often see at pet stores or is owned by your friends or family. The Siberian pole cat, which is found in parts of Mongolia and Russia, is actually the closest living relative to the black-footed ferret. And then of course, the most charismatic of the three, the only species native to North America, the black-footed ferret. This species is a solitary nocturnal carnivore and is highly dependent upon prairie dogs. Next slide.
The black-footed ferret has a huge historic range, encompassing 12 states in here in the United States, in the Great Plains region, a little bit of Canada, and a little bit of Mexico. Next slide. As I mentioned, black-footed ferrets are really dependent on prairie dogs. Prairie dogs are considered the keystone species. Without the prairie dogs, the entire ecosystem collapses. Why are these animals important for black-footed ferrets? Well, they make up the main prey source for black-footed ferrets. Over 90% of the black-footed ferret diet is prairie dog. Additionally, prairie dogs dig and excavate very complex burrow systems. It's these burrows that provide the black-footed ferret with shelter from predators like coyotes, badgers, and owls. The burrows are also used by black-footed ferrets to raise their young. It's the female black-footed ferret whose responsibility it is to care for those kits. Next slide.
Well, why are we in trouble? Why did the black-footed ferret almost go extinct? Like most endangered species, whether it be plant or animal, it comes down to habitat loss. There's not enough wild places for these species to persist. It's estimated that 98 percent of the black-footed ferrets' range prairie dog ecosystem is gone. This is due to a number of things, conversion of this area to housing developments and shopping malls, also conversion of the area for making the food that we eat. One of the big things that has impacted prairie dogs, and thus black-footed ferrets, has also been prairie dog eradication campaigns. The slide on the bottom of the screen shows one day's kill of prairie dogs in Arizona in the early 1900s. One of the greatest challenges and biggest obstacles we have right now with recovery of the black-footed ferret are various diseases, most notably sylvatic plague and canine distemper.
Sylvatic plague is the same disease that wiped out most of our species in the Middle Ages, bubonic plague in humans. This disease is a zoonotic disease. It impacts and goes between animals and humans. Now, it is basically a bacteria that is harbored in the gut of fleas, and these fleas are on rats or other rodents. It's a non-native disease to the North America. So, it's an Old-World disease originating from various places in Asia. There were, in the early 1900s, trade ships that came from Asia to the ports of San Francisco and Los Angeles. On those ships were rats, and on those rats were fleas. And in the gut of some of those fleas was this plague bacteria. So as the ships docked in California, rats jumped the ship, the fleas jumped the rats, and you have a spread of sylvatic plague eastward, hitting the black-footed ferrets and really impacting not only black-footed ferrets, but their prey base, the keystone species, prairie dogs. Next slide.
While a small population of black-footed ferrets was found in South Dakota in the mid 1970s, that population was studied, but eventually went locally extinct. Some animals were brought into managed care. They did successfully produce kits, but none of those kits survived beyond the age of 10 days old, so we didn't get any offspring from those animals. So in the late 1970s, the black-footed ferret was considered extinct until fate prevailed and the German shepherd, you see in the picture on the screen, named Shep, actually rediscovered a population of black-footed ferrets outside of Meeteetse, Wyoming. Shep's owners, John and Lucile Hogg, took a carcass that Shep found, brought it to a local taxidermist who identified that animal as one of the most endangered species on the face of the planet. So, we think about all of the luck that had to take place, and the curiosity not only of Shep, but his landowners, to actually bring that specimen to light. Scientists ran upon and merged upon Meeteetse Wyoming, started their spotlight surveys.
Again, black-footed ferrets are nocturnal, and we find them by looking for their brilliant green eyeshine at night. A population was discovered, and that population was studied by researchers and peaked to about 130 individuals in 1984. Next slide. Unfortunately, those field biologists started to see a decline in the wild population of the ferrets. And the two diseases I mentioned previously, sylvatic plague and canine distemper, were detected in the Meeteetse colony. In 1985, it was determined that the fate of the species would be placed in managed care and that all black-footed ferrets should be trapped and brought into our care. Only 18 black-footed ferrets were removed from the wild. That is all that was left of the species, and these individuals began a breeding program ... You can go to the next slide. Began a breeding program that was based in Sybille Canyon, Wyoming, and overseen by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Of course, we had a recovery plan for the species, knowing that it had been previously listed as endangered in the 1960s. And this plant emphasized some major, major categories and things that we need to focus on.
Obviously, we wanted to breed the animals and produce as many offspring as we could. That was the first thing. We also then wanted to expand that population to as many different facilities as we could. Just like you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, you don't want to put all your black-footed ferrets in one building. This is a way to prevent any catastrophes wiping out a single population. Of course, the goal of breeding is to return as many kits as possible to reintroduction sites. So, biologists had to assess habitat, prairie dog habitat, and identify potential reintroduction sites within the ferrets' historic range. Lastly, we wanted to develop assisted reproductive techniques as a way to capture genetic material. Given that we only had 18 individuals surviving from a very isolated population, once they're in our care, that's considered a closed population. No new unrelated black-footed ferrets are being added to it. In fact, since this population of ferrets was detected, we have not found any unrelated individuals. Next slide.
The facilities on your screen are those that currently are breeding black-footed ferrets. Historically, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo was also a member of what we call the Species Survival Plan. This is just a way of managing animals under our care that, next slide, minimizes the loss of genetic diversity. That really is our main goal in having such a small population. We do the best we can to make sure that breeding recommendations are of the most unrelated individuals. Unlike most endangered species, black-footed ferrets have unlimited space, and I'll get to that in a second. So, we are trying to produce as many kits as possible every year. The age structure, or demography of our population at those six facilities has been adjusted in hopes that we will be able to produce about 250 black-footed ferret kits annually and supply those kits to the reintroduction sites within the historic range of the ferret. Just like we're discussing ferret recovery today with all of you, education and outreach is key. People need to be able to see species that hopefully then they'll care about.
Since black-footed ferrets are nocturnal, not many folks have the opportunity to see them. So, we also supply our post reproductive animals to a number of display facilities. These are at conservation centers and museums and various zoos across North America. Next slide.
Black-footed ferrets, as I mentioned, are cared for by the mom or the dam. The male, or sire, has his own large territory. And after breeding, he has no paternal care for the kits. Their gestation is about 42 days. And the one picture there showing the pile of kits is roughly 10 days of age. Ferrets are born blind with some white hair and are deaf. And the average litter size is three. We have seen litters of between one and 10. And our survivorship with our managed population is typically, on average, about 90 percent a year. The other picture of the kits you see there, the really, really, really cute one are kits about 40 days of age. Their eyes begin to open around 35 days of age, and they have a very fast growth rate.
They are born typically in April and May, and right around four months of age is when we release them to the wild. In the wild. We are finally mainly two- and three-year-old black-footed ferrets. So, they are a species that doesn't have a long life. Next slide. Since we have so many individuals in our managed care population, roughly 300 spread out at those six facilities, we have the ability to do lots of scientific study on our populations. We're also able to collect various biomaterials: blood, hair, biopsy, skin cells, semen, ovaries. All of these things can be housed in our frozen zoo. We have frozen zoos here at the Smithsonian in Front Royal, as well as at the San Diego Wildlife Alliance in San Diego. And this has been very helpful in infusing material into our breeding population. So, we can collect gametes, and we have been able to do artificial insemination. Next slide.
And artificial insemination allows us to resurrect animals that existed decades ago. By bringing them back into our breeding population, we have a genetic benefit, right? They're beneficial to our overall genetics of the population. We've also been able to clone a black-footed ferret. Now, we continue to work on these technologies because we have two black-footed ferrets in our frozen zoos that are not represented in our breeding population. So, they are potential new genetic founders to this entire recovery program. So overall, we've produced over 10,000 black-footed ferrets through natural breeding, over 150 through artificial insemination, and we've produced one clone. So, we are tackling the recovery of the species from all angles, using every possible scientific method in our toolbox. Next slide. Thankfully, since 1991, we've been able to return black-footed ferrets to the wild. Next slide.
But how do we do that? What are the strategies we do? Our goal is to make sure that black-footed ferrets are surviving when released. We have looked at, through scientific research, various ways to try. A lot of this was going on in the 1990s when we were first starting out with reintroduction. We explored a soft release and a hard release, having ferrets acclimate an onsite pens versus just taking a ferret born at a zoo and releasing it directly into the wild. We put up electric fences to create these predator-free zones. No coyotes or badgers in these areas to give the ferrets a head start. And we've also done some work on predator avoidance, hoping to assess the reaction times of black-footed ferrets when they're faced with taxidermy swooping owls or the mechanical Robo-Badger driving across the ferrets pen. Next slide.
What we found that works best for black-footed ferrets is pre-conditioning, placing our zoo-born ferrets into a natural burrow system, feeding these animals live prey and prairie dogs, and having them occupy this space for about 30 days before trapping them up and giving them a physical and sending them out for release. As you recall, I mentioned that some of the biggest obstacles to ferret recovery are sylvatic plague and canine distemper, these diseases. We, through scientific research, all of our partners have been able to develop safe and effective vaccines that the black-footed ferrets get. This includes a canine distemper vaccine and a sylvatic plague vaccine. Our partners at the U.S. Geologic Survey, working with the U.S. Army, took a vaccine that was used for humans and modified it for use in black-footed ferrets. Next slide.
This is a picture of some black-footed ferrets in the pens at the National Center in Northern Colorado. And we have found, through radio telemetry studies, that this experience, black-footed ferrets in a semi-natural environment, really enhances their natural behaviors and does provide increased survival rates when these animals are returned to the wild. Next. Since 1991, we have been, on an annual basis, releasing black-footed ferrets to the wild. We just dropped up, a couple months ago, the final releases for 2022. And we are, right now the six facilities that house black-footed ferrets in managed care getting ready for the onset of our 2023 breeding season. So far, we have estimated that there are currently 300 to 400 black-footed ferrets in the wild. Remember, these animals have a very short life expectancy when they're released. You see the one ferret there periscoping, or putting its head out of the prairie dog burrow system, and you get a sense of that brilliant green eyeshine that we use to detect black-footed ferrets when conducting spotlight surveys.
The other ferret coming through with a donut-ring reader or burrow reader is coming out, and actually that loop around the prairie dog borough is passively scanning a pit tag, or transponder chip, that all ferret's get to identify whether it's a male or female, which facility it came from, as well as, since we've been quite successful at most of our reintroduction sites with wild born kits being produced the year after reintroduction, we can tell if it's actually a wild born kit. So. That ring reader is scanning just like you scan groceries with their barcodes. That's what this device is doing. And then that information is downloaded into a data recorder. And we can keep track of what we're doing in managed care, and with pre-conditioning is still effective with survivorship in the wild. Next slide.
So to date, we've been able to release black-footed ferrets at 30 reintroduction sites. We are working to add more sites. There are many sites that are released on federal land, on state land, city land, tribal land, and many sites that are on private land. So just as the Hogg family helped discover the black-footed ferrets, we continue to work with many landowners within the ferrets' historic range to ensure the survival of the species. Next slide. Just wanted to give you an example of the impact of sylvatic plague on black-footed ferret habitat. This image is of Conata Basin in South Dakota. Conata Basin is located just south of Wall, South Dakota. And the terrain you see in the background of the slide is that of Badlands National Park, if anybody has been there. This site used to be over 30,000 acres of prairie dog. It was a self-sustaining black-footed ferret site with hundreds of kits being born at the site annually. This allowed us to do lots of research on ferrets, move ferrets from one reintroduction site to another reintroduction site. But then plague hit. Next slide.
And for black-footed ferrets, again, plague is a bacteria harbored in the gut of fleas. So if a flea were to bite me and that flea had plague, I could get plague. There's always a couple breakouts in human populations every year you hear on the news. Same thing with animals. If a flea that harbored that bacteria were to bite a prairie dog, the prairie dog would succumb of plague. Same thing with black-footed ferrets. With black-footed ferrets however, they also can be infected with plague by ingesting an infected prairie dog. So, it's kind of a double whammy for these guys. So, what do we do to try and keep plague at bay? Well, we found that dusting every single prairie dog burrow in the black-footed ferret area is really, really beneficial. It basically controls the fleas and lowers their numbers down in the burrow system. We're also trapping up every black-footed ferret we can find and giving it those vaccines, giving it a transponder, collecting those biomaterials, which come back to the Smithsonian or the frozen zoo in San Diego. And we do this through biomedical surveys.
So, that area of over 30,000 acres of habitat has been reduced to less than 11,000 acres of habitat. And the only way it's persisting is through our dusting campaigns, and we continue to explore different technologies to try and ensure both prairie dogs and ferrets are still on the landscape. Next slide. So, biomedical surveys are really crucial in understanding what's going on in the wild. This is where the world of managed care, all the folks at zoos and universities and museums, meet with field biologists out at the black-footed ferret habitats. And we do spotlight surveys. You see the truck there driving through the landscape. It's not Mars. It is North America. And we are looking for these elusive ground-burrow-dwelling animals. Once we have them in hand, we bring them to our field trailers, use anesthesia, and then conduct measurements, draw samples, do everything we need to do to really give that animal a physical, and then return it back to the burrow from which it was trapped. Next slide.
Regardless of what species you put in the center of that puzzle, in this case, obviously a black-footed ferret, there are many pieces of the puzzle that need to go in and factor into recovery, from assisted reproduction to vaccine research. As I mentioned, we have safe and effective vaccines: plague, canine distemper. Some black-footed ferrets are actually being vaccinated for COVID-19. Separate vaccine than what's being used in humans. The vaccine is specific to different wildlife species. Landowners, all of you are critical to this process as well. Establishing reintroduction sites and education outreach. Every single piece has to fit and be in-sync in the hope of saving a species. Next slide.
Our many, many partners in recovery, and this is only part of them. From the zoological organizations to government agencies, non-government organizations in universities, state wildlife agencies, we are striving to ensure that these Mustelids from Meeteetse, these wonders of Wyoming, will forever roam the prairie night. Next slide. That is all I have for you. Thank you very much for hearing about black-footed ferrets, and I believe there's some links in the chat that you can go to find out more information about this species and the work we're doing. Back to you, Ashley.
Ashley Peery:
Wow. Thank you so much, Paul. This is such a huge, multifaceted, decades-long effort. Thank you for sharing this work with us. Oh, you are muted, my friend.
Paul Marinari:
Darn it.
Ashley Peery:
It's always bound to happen at least once, right?
Paul Marinari:
That's true.
Ashley Peery:
We have a lot of questions coming in from the audience.
Paul Marinari:
Excellent.
Ashley Peery:
If you're ready, let's dig into those. So, our first question ... First question comes from Lawrence. This is actually a really good starter question, something I wondered myself. Other than markings, is a ferret different from a weasel?
Paul Marinari:
So, weasels and black-footed ferrets are all members of the Mustelidae family. And a black-footed ferrets, although weasel-like, is a totally different species, very different behavior, very different lifestyle, different diet. So, while black-footed ferrets and European ferrets and Siberian pole cats and least weasel and long-tailed weasel are all lumped into a family, they have a lot of differences, and they're all very unique. Our hope is that black-footed ferrets ... As I mentioned, the prairie dog is the keystone species. Let me get rid of these. The prairie dog is the keystone species, and the black-footed ferret we consider to be a flagship species. So if we save the black-footed ferret, we save the over 120 other plants and animals that are found in this prairie ecosystem. And I got to tell you, when we're doing those spotlight surveys and you see some eyeshine, in addition to hopefully finding some black-footed ferrets, you are usually seeing some weasel as well. So, they do share the same habitat.
Ashley Peery:
So, a good reminder of the connections between these animals and the environment, and also the relationships of these animals with each other.
Paul Marinari:
Definitely.
Ashley Peery:
... whether they're antagonistic or whatever.
Paul Marinari:
Definitely. Yeah, definitely. And with the ferret and prairie dog, definitely a predator-prey relationship.
Ashley Peery:
So, our next question comes from Alice, and she has a question that takes us back to the beginning of your story. She wants to know, in the 1970s in Dakota, why did those ferret kits die? I think you mentioned that none of them lived past 10 days old. What happened?
Paul Marinari:
Yes. Yeah. So that was actually a population found in South Dakota. And the animals were studied in the wild, and then some were transferred to the Patuxent facility over in Maryland. And while they successfully produced ... We really see a lot of mortality between birth and 10 days of age. It could have been stress, right? Animals being trapped, and then giving birth in a different environment. It could have just been luck. We learned a lot from that population. And it was only a couple litters. It was only about 10 kits that were born. So, it sometimes is a numbers game, but we really learned a lot. Our second chance with the Meeteetse population, we learned a lot from the different husbandry and diets for the European pole cats or the domestic ferrets. So, both the Siberian pole cat and the domestic ferret has have served as surrogate species, which have really helped black-footed ferret recovery.
Ashley Peery:
Good to know. Here's another question that's kind of from the beginning of that story. Kate asks, why did, or do ... It might still be a thing. Why do people want to eradicate prairie dogs?
Paul Marinari:
It's still a thing, and we really can't have black-footed ferret recovery without some level of prairie dog control. We're trying to take this habitat that's often used for multi-use, cattle grazing, recreation, and endangered species recovery, right? So, there is some fear that having all these prairie dog holes will somehow impact livestock competition for various plant material between the prairie dogs. In many areas, prairie dogs are considered a nuisance, just as we in urban areas trap mice and have rat control and all of that. That's primarily the reason. A lot of it also was to establish ... You're trapping out these animals as you're converting the habitat over to farmland or ranch land. It's the same thing. Do you want a soccer field for your kids to play on, or are you good with that being prairie dog habitat? Do you want a mall built or a housing development built?
So, again, it's a trade off, right? The good thing is though, with all that being said and done, there is still ... And I should have mentioned this during the talk. I mentioned the 98 percent of the habitat that's gone. The good part of that is that there's 2 percent left. And of that 2 percent, we only need one-tenth of 1 percent to recover the species. So, it really is a small fraction that we need for black-footed ferret recovery.
Ashley Peery:
Well, there's some good news in there. Thanks for sharing that.
Paul Marinari:
Sure.
Ashley Peery:
Natalie asks, what was the goal of creating a clone ferret? Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? It sounds really sci-fi, right?
Paul Marinari:
Well, yeah, and it's kind of the next step. When I started, all of the genomics work that was being done was with colored pencils and pedigree charts. As you mentioned, Ashley, I'm the stud bookkeeper for the program. And the stud book is an electronic pedigree. It's as if you were to go take a cheek sample and go on ancestry.com or 23andme or something like that. So, it shows the level of relatedness to all black-footed ferrets. So, there were a couple ferrets that were trapped from that Meeteetse population that, one, either died of canine distemper, or survived and had no living offspring to add their genetic material to the population. So, one of our strategies is to try and capture as much of the unrepresented genetic material as possible that is at our disposal. So from the onset, that has been a key to our recovery program.
And we have been banking samples. So when we use those samples for either artificial insemination or cloning, it's done thoughtfully and strategically. So, we are trying to represent, get represented in the population, two animals that currently aren't represented. And they themselves have very unique genomics. We have done a lot of sampling and work to do high coverage assessment of some of the samples we have, also using some of the samples at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. So having all these living animals, having the museum samples, we can actually see how the population of ferrets has changed over time, and we have the opportunity to really add a bump in genetic diversity. And that really turns the clock back a little bit and buys us more time. So, hopefully that answers the question. You can certainly Google a lot of that, and you should find some scientific literature and papers on cloning and other assisted reproductive technologies.
Ashley Peery:
That's really amazing. Thanks. Let's see. Our next question is from Alicia. Is there any way to manipulate the genes so that the bottleneck of 18 individuals has more genetic diversity? So, you mentioned all those samples or opportunities to increase genetic diversity. Alicia's taking in another step. Can you manipulate the genes in those banked samples, say, to increase the genetic diversity?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah, that's a great controversial question. And everything we do with black-footed ferrets is overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So, they provide us with permits that we work under. And we are still following the Endangered Species Act. So, there's a lot of ... Sometimes science tech, technology is moving much faster than regulation, but we're exploring various things, not totally creating a unique animal, but we are trying to do more research on gut biomes, microbiomes and further genetic assessment of the population, different strategies when it comes to breeding animals. And of course, all of that is time and money. So, we're not really at the point of tinkering with things to create some kind of monster. We are learning still about the chromosomes and where everything is and what things mean, and then we can start looking at that. And just as we've done with vaccine development, we have a whole group of scientists who are working on genomics.
So if there's any ... I know there's a lot of current, former, and hopefully future black-footed ferret-teers out there. So hopefully if folks are interested in genomics, it is something really to look into and to take some genetics classes if you're in college,
Ashley Peery:
Really interesting directions that could still be taken.
Paul Marinari:
Yes.
Ashley Peery:
Our next question is ... It's another one from Alice, and it's a two-parter. First part is, are you recapturing and chipping the wild born kits? And then the second question, do the prey of prairie dogs get the plague as well? What do prairie dogs eat?
Paul Marinari:
Prairie dogs eat grass.
Ashley Peery:
Oh, okay. So, maybe that question doesn't really apply.
Paul Marinari:
Well, I'll do the first one. So, yes, we are doing our best to try and capture every single wild-born, black-footed ferret we can get our hands on. I think one of the links was for one of our nonprofit groups called Prairie Wildlife Research. They do a lot of work in this field, so you can check their site out. I think they have some videos. And we, we being the general we, are working with a lot of the different field biologists who are doing these surveys. So, we try and transponder chip every single animal that tells us a lot of information moving forward with additional surveys. And there's a number of wildlife species that can get plague. It is really rodents and black-footed ferrets and Felids, or cats, that are typically the most impacted. Again, this is an exotic disease, right? It's an Old World disease.
We live here in North America, we're in the New World, so these species haven't had much time to evolve and to develop some resistance. The other surrogate species that we've used, the Siberian polecat and the European polecat, at do have some level of resistance to plague. But keep in mind, plague is a living organism, so plague is also evolving.
Ashley Peery:
Okay. The next question, June asks, what kind of ferrets do you get at a pet store, and how do they differ from these black-footed ones?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah, so the animals you see in pet stores are the domesticated ferret. So, that's the European pole cat, which is a relative to the black-footed ferret. That species is more of a generalist. They eat lots of different things. Their noses are ... Every single black-footed ferret that I've ever seen has a black nose. Their noses are usually pink or black. They do oftentimes look very, very similar, but the domestic ferrets have longer guard hairs. Black-footed ferret hair is much shorter. So, that's some of the characteristics. And of course, being domesticated, they're friendlier. Black-footed ferrets at around 50 days of age realize, hey, I'm a black-footed ferret and you're not, and they will try and bite you. And we want that. That's encouraged. We want them to keep that wild demeanor, since every black-footed ferret we have under our care is a potential reintroduction candidate.
Ashley Peery:
Good to keep in mind. Daniel asks, what mechanisms are in place to ensure ferret preservation when private lands change hands?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah, that's a good question. So, a number of private landowners have signed up for a landowner incentive program. And one of the ... Our recovery coordinator always mentions, it's kind of like a strand of twinkly lights. So, our job with ferret recovery is to keep the power on and make sure that, at any given point, some of the lights in the strand are on. It may be different lights, so it might be different reintroduction sites that blink out. So, there's various ways where folks can either give money to, or give their land to a conservation easement, or if folks opt out or sell their property and the new landowners don't want to have ferrets there, then we could potentially go in and trap and relocate everything. So, that's always an option. Usually, it's a lot of ... That's where a lot of the educational component comes in, and having landowners at the table and being part of the process and having folks be able to release black-footed ferrets into the wild and have their kids come out and really involve them in every part of management is essential.
Ashley Peery:
So, the next two questions are ... They're related. It's from two separate people. Robert asks, he says, "I live in Colorado not far from Fort Collins. Is there a place open to the public where I can go see the BFF? I'm retired, and to do wildlife photography?" And Kirk asks, "Are there opportunities to help with a spotlight survey or otherwise get a chance to see the BFF in the wild?"
Paul Marinari:
So, the first question, living in Colorado, yes, you have, at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, right there on 287, they do have some black-footed ferrets that are in their museum. They're post-reproductive animals, and there's also a number of webcams that you can find on some black-footed ferret sites. There are some reintroduction sites going on in Northern Colorado. So again, check locally if folks have a zoo or a wildlife center within the ferrets' historic range. That's always a good question to ask folks. In terms of opportunities to help with spotlight surveys, it depends on what state you're, and depends on how they're constructing their surveys. A number of state organizations, like Arizona ... I'm going to use them as an example. So if they work with the Phoenix Zoo, so sometimes through the Phoenix Zoo, you could be a volunteer, then go help out with spotlight surveys.
Or those state agencies or tribal folks might solicit, "Hey, we'd like to ... We're looking for some volunteers to come out and help." There's a number of ... You can look online to see where ferret reintroduction sites are. A number of them are at national parks or just wildlife areas. So, there's always a chance. Most state laws prohibit people using spotlights to find wildlife. So given that ferrets are nocturnal, pastoral, or living below ground animals, it is often hard. Probably the best way to go about it is to become a wildlife biologist and really have a passion for black-footed ferrets and make it a career.
Ashley Peery:
No small task. Jim asks the big question, when if ever, do you expect to get a self-sustaining population in the wild?
Paul Marinari:
We actually do currently have a couple self-sustaining populations in the wild. Now when we say self-sustaining, they do need some level of management. And that is really purposeful plague or prairie dog management. So that population in South Dakota, albeit much smaller habitat, it is considered a self-sustaining population, meaning that we've not had to add any additional animals that have been born at one of our breeding centers to that population. So, they continually produce about a hundred kits. I think a little more than a hundred kits is what the field biologist found at that specific site. And then we have a lot of animals in the wild in Wyoming and Colorado, and then that's probably followed by Arizona. So, we've gone from zero in the wild to roughly 300 to 400 in the wild to 300 in managed care. So, we're not there yet, but we're making some solid progress.
Ashley Peery:
It's good to hear. Yeah. Let's see. Denise asks, what are the black-footed ferrets' hunting strategies? They sound like really incredible predators. Tell us about it.
Paul Marinari:
They are. They evolve to really focus in on prairie dogs. So, it's about one prairie dog every three days. Black-footed ferrets are nocturnal or active at night. Prairie dogs are active during the day. You'll occasionally see a black-footed ferret up during the day, just kind of checking things out, but black-footed ferrets have these long guard hair, long guard hairs on their forelimbs, and they can actually sense the vibrations of a sleeping prairie dog down in the prairie dog burrow system. So, black-footed ferrets use their body leverage and their large canines and basically get a throat bite and suffocate a prairie dog to death. And it's innate behavior, right? We have ... The moms will be take out their kits on hunting excursions, and it's really a lot of fine tuning. The kits are observing. It's like velociraptors almost sometimes when we see things above ground. So, that's really key. You can't have black-footed ferrets without prairie dogs.
Ashley Peery:
That's amazing. They are brutal predators.
Paul Marinari:
Yeah. And Ashley, I just wanted to jump. Not to steal any thunder, but I need to answer Jodie's question because I know Jodie from Laramie, Wyoming, and her dad used to be one of the main folks who helped out early on with the genetics of the program. So, I'm going to answer her question about the two ferrets in the frozen zoo, if they were part of the current population. So, yes, Jodie, they were. One is stud book 10. She was a female captured from the Meeteetse,Wyoming, population. She had one kit in managed care, but that kit did not survive. So, she's one of those animals. The other animal was an animal, one of the six early animals that were brought into buildings at the University of Wyoming, and those individuals died of canine distemper. So, that's the other one. But we have a number of samples that are at the frozen zoo in San Diego. We continue to send animals and cell lines to them, so in 20 years. So, hopefully some of those animals will be resurrected. Thanks for my-
Ashley Peery:
No, I'm glad you went there. That was actually my plan, so perfect.
Paul Marinari:
Okay.
Ashley Peery:
That was a great question, Jodie. Thanks. How many black-footed ferrets ... Let's see. You mentioned how many black-footed ferrets are currently in managed systems? So, you said I think 300. Is that right?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah, we try and keep it at 300, and it's primarily the one-, two-, and three-year-old age classes.
Ashley Peery:
Okay. And then how many are you releasing on average every year?
Paul Marinari:
So, our goal is to release about at least 200, and that includes both kits or young of the year, as well as some adults. So, adults are assessed and go through the same preconditioning process. So, I believe last year, we released about 130 individuals at, I believe, nine different locations throughout the historic range. But if production's really good, our goal is to annually release somewhere between 150 and 200.
Ashley Peery:
Cool. Leslie, or sorry, not Leslie, Nancy asks in the wild populations, are they ... Wild, I guess those self-sustaining populations, are those increasing or kind of remaining static, some are born some pass away?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah. so at some locations, they're increasing. For the most part though, been going, I'm the wrong way, going fairly steady. And a lot of that has to do with plague management One we get ... We're working very hard to find the most effective and cost-effective way to be able to manage plague on the landscape. And once we have plague under control, which is oftentimes a tough thing to do, black-footed ferrets do quite well. It's also the amount of effort placed in with doing spotlight surveys. For the past couple years with COVID, things were kind of ... Our breeding was not put on hold at all. We did not scale back. We were full-bore ahead with our breeding efforts, just more PPE was involved and more precautions when it came to transferring animals. But some of the field folks didn't conduct as many of the surveys that they would've.
Ashley Peery:
Got it. Kate asks, have you discovered any genetic illnesses in your ferrets? And have you had to choose not to have those individuals reproduce?
Paul Marinari:
So, yes, we have seen genetic abnormalities, like snaggletooth or various things like that. We also had, in our initial population ... And we say we have seven genetic founders, so seven individuals that have unique genetic material that came in. So, if a mom came in with its kits, the mom would be a founder. The kits having part of the genetics of the mom would not be founders. So, some of those individuals had had kidney issues, they had reproductive issues like one horn of the uterus. So, we've been seeing that we don't necessarily choose animals not to breed because we're not quite sure what we would be losing if we were not to breed them. So again, we were trying to understand the genomics of, the genetics of every single individual, which being a short-lived species, is a lot of changes. And that really is ... The question really points out that those biomedical surveys are really important because that's an opportunity for us to collect samples and assess and compare basically the NC2 population with the XC2 population, so the population in the wild, the population out of the wild.
Ashley Peery:
Thanks for defining those. So, we have time for one last question, and it's from Natalie. Natalie asks, how can you get involved in conservation work like this if you're no longer in college and you don't have a background in biology?
Paul Marinari:
Yeah, so I like to say that we're all conservationists, right? I happen to work for the Smithsonian and oversee. There's our collection here at SCBI, which is about 21 different threatened and endangered species. But with the choices we all make, everybody has the ability, hopefully, to help pollinators out, whether they have an apartment balcony or a big yard, whether you're being a rural setting in an urban setting. There's also just the ability to share some of this information with your friends and colleagues. Go to your local zoo or nature center or museum and find out what is being done locally to help different species and different conservation projects. It's not always about the species, it's about the habitat and the choices we make. So, there's a lot of opportunities out there.
I think some of those you can find on the shared links that we put in the chat for today. And really just one of the big things that I always talk about is the choices we make, right? Single-use plastic is one of the big issues right now. It's impacting numerous ecosystems, numerous species. So, get that bamboo straw. And with the choices we make when we're shopping, we can all make really, really impactful conservation decisions.
Ashley Peery:
I like that. We are all conservationists. So, that is all the time that we have today. Paul, thank you so, so much.
Paul Marinari:
Thank you very much.
Ashley Peery:
Thank you to the audience. Thank you also to the audience for your numerous questions. I also want to give a special thanks to those who make today's program possible. That includes our donors, our volunteers, and all of you who tune in monthly to see these webinars. Thank you for helping us do the work that we do every day. Speaking of the next webinar, we are going to be continuing this series, but we're going to take January off. The series will resume in February. Look for more information related to that in your inboxes in early 2023. You can also check out the Events page at the Natural History Museum's website. So the last thing, you're going to see a link to a survey in the Q&A. And we hope that you guys will take a moment to respond. We do read your responses and your responses help us to make our programming better. So, thanks again, and we're going to see you next time.
