Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
black footed ferret
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: black footed ferret
Only a small handful of endangered species have been reunited to there respective populations in the last few decades. The black footed ferret (also recognized as its scientific name Mustela Nigripes) was thought to be one of the most endangered animals in the United States and completely wiped out from Canada.
The black footed ferrets were declared extinct in 1974, in 1981 a miracle happened when aferret was discovered in Meeteetsee, Wyoming when John and Lucille Hogg’s ranch dog killed a black footed ferret and carried the dead animal home; they took the corpse to a knowledgeable taxidermist Larry LaFranchie. This became such great opportunity to save the species. A terrible disease in 1985 attacked the small ferret population, and a lot of the remaining animals were taken into captivity in a desperate effort to save what was left. Captive breeding was initiated soon after, and a reintroduction program began in 1991.
In this paper, I will discuss the threats, habitat, and habitat loss of the black footed ferret, the importance of agriculture and how it affects the black footed ferret today, and how prairie dog colonies affect where the black footed ferret lives. I will discuss how they reproduce, their behaviors, and how they are important to an ecosystem.
The ferrets are obligatory predators on the prairie dogs. This is known as a specialized predator because they only eat prairie dogs. The ferrets prey on prairie dogs and take advantage over their burrows for shelter and denning. The ferret takes control of the burrow by strangling them and eating them. Black footed ferrets eat a lot of prairie dogs; a family of 4 ferrets eat up to 250 prairie dogs per year. The prairie dogs back in the 20th century were persecuted as agricult...
... middle of paper ...
...gue by fleas, or by eating dead prairie dogs that have been infected and died with it in there system. Through this encounter of this disease, the US Army and the US Geological Survey had concocted a vaccine that has been proven to be effective at preventing this disease. They inject this vaccine into the burrows, approximately 3 week later it provides a lifelong immunity towards the plague. Captive ferrets are injected before they are released into the wild, and efforts have been made to inject the wild ferrets, but it is intense and very time consuming to attempt this.
Works Cited
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/14020/0 http://www.defenders.org/black-footed-ferret/basic-facts http://www.ferret-world.com/black-footedferrethabitat.html http://www.blackfootedferret.org/who-we-are http://www.blackfootedferret.org/disease
http://www.blackfootedferret.org/history
Now, just a couple of years later, the Colorado Division of Wildlife is planning to release over 180 more lynx into the Colorado wilderness within the next five years. However, out of nearly 100 Canadian Lynx that have already been released so far, about half of them have died and none of them have reproduced. With the type of results that the process has received so far, the agencies involved in the reintroduction process should stop reintroducing the lynx into Colorado. Instead, they should try to find a way different way that will get results that save the species. The government agencies that are involved in reintroducing the lynx argue that it should be done in order to save an endangered species. In this argument they bring out three strong points for trying to save the lynx: every animal should have the opportunity to exist, many people feel happy when they see the animals they share the land with and all living things are part of a complex ecosystem ("Wildlife Commission . . ."). However, they aren't sure how to reintroduce the lynx so that they don't all die.
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
The end of the nineteenth century brought the closing of the frontier, the near extinction of the buffalo, and the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Both species had
Over Hunting during the Fur Trade is evident, and resulted in the near extinction of some animals popular for furs, such as Beaver, Mink, O...
...eestablish this subspecies' old and unoccupied range areas. These goals were assisted in 1983 when the Florida Legislature established the Florida Panther Technical Advisory Council. The commission is firmly committed to take all necessary actions within their given authority to assure recovery for the Florida panther. The panthers are still going to need broad public support and active cooperation among all management. “Civilization is the main threat to the survival of the Florida panther…”, and so it will be until we learn how to respect these species that occupied the land we take before us. A land that was not ours to take and land we truly do need as bad for survival as these creatures.
U.S. Department of the interior, National Park Service. (2013). Endangered Species. Retrieved from website: http://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/endangeredspecies/index.cfm
Noceker, Robert J. ìCongressional Research Service Report for Congress Reintroduction of Wolves.î August 1, 1997. Visited: October 17, 1999.
“200 years ago, there was around 16 million greater sage grouse; Today there may be fewer than 200,000” (Dantzker and Swartwout). The Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a magnificent bird that only lives in the Sagebrush-steppe habitat. This habitat is seen in the western part of the United States and also some area of North and South America. From the study above, it should be obvious that the greater sage grouse were considered endangered by Fish and Wildlife Organizations. However, on September 30th, 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Organization removed the sage grouse from the endangered “candidates” list, and stated that they would enforce plans to help the conservation of these birds. People should be aware that this is
Mader,T.R. Wolf reintroduction in the Yellowstone National Park: a historical perspective. Common Man Institute. 1998. 26 pgs.
Yersinia Pestis is a bacterium found in fleas that can be transferred to host rats and can eventually be spread to humans. Antibiotics, immunizations, and other medical treatments weren’t available during the Middle Ages, so there was not ...
8. Taylor, Dan. 1998. Audubon Society Inspired to Action by Bird Die -offs . 17 Jan. 1998 . E-mail . Available bkus@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
1.A lot of people are misinformed, have misconceptions, or might not have any idea at all about what these animals are about. The ferret family, which includes weasels, mink, polecats, martins, skunks, badgers, otters, wolverines, and the endangered black-footed ferret. Early Greek literature suggests that unlike its cousins, the ferret has been domesticated for approximately two to three thousand years.
Prevention: - There is no plague vaccine is developed till now, scientists are working to develop the vaccine.
“Rat control and watching for the disease in the wild rodent population are the main measures used” ("Plague") to help prevent the spread of the Bubonic Plague today. With this prevention being announced throughout the science fields and communities, less and less people are encountering this deadly disease. Although watching and being careful not to encounter infected rodents has helped, the disease can also be prevented with a vaccine. Normally this vaccine is only administered to people who work or live in areas with large populations of rodents and wild animals that could possibly have the infectious disease. This is due to the fact that scientists are still currently unaware of how effective the vaccine is and the different symptoms that can occur from getting the vaccine. The vaccine is also not administered often because of the lack of people around wild rodents, but “[f]urthermore, these vaccines are no longer being manufactured in the U.S.” (Meysick). Without the United States producing the ingredients needed to manufacture the specialized antiserum, the people that are employed in areas dealing with wild rodents still have the possibility of acquiring the disease. A probable reason to why the United States does not produce this antiseptic anymore can be that the price to
Shreeve, jamie “Species Revival: Should We Bring Back Extinct Animals?” ngm.nationalgeographic.com 5 March 2013, 22 March 2014