Extinct Animal : Black Footed Ferret

Last noted in Saskatchewan in 1937, this weasel is now considered to be extirpated in Canada. It has fared little better in the United States. An animal of North America’s arid, shortgrass prairies, it lived primarily with, and on, prairie dogs.

Wide-scale poisoning programs to eradicate prairie dogs and the destruction of grassland habitat also killed off the ferret. It now survives in a few places in the western United States where ranchers are compensated for not molesting prairie dog towns and where management programs for the prairie dog and the ferret are being developed.