Endangered ferrets freed on Babbitt ranch near Williams

Fresh from being trained to hunt prairie dogs and maneuver the outdoors, a group of endangered black-footed ferrets was released Wednesday on a northern Arizona ranch to boost the population of the animals that once disappeared from the state. The release of 25 ferrets at the Espee Ranch near Williams marked the second reintroduction of the animals on private property in the country under an agreement with landowners that includes minimal land-use restrictions and no penalties if one of the ferrets accidentally is killed. The first was on a ranch near Pueblo, Colorado, last year. Before they could be released Wednesday, the young ferrets had to prove their survival skills at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Wellington, Colorado. After getting a taste for prairie dog through feedings, the ferrets had to kill three prairie dogs on their own and stay outside for a month. "We have to have a reasonable chance of success before we release them," said Julie Lyke, deputy recovery coordinator for Fish and Wildlife. "Not all of them make it." The ferrets, with yellowish-brown fur, grow about two feet long and live about four years. Their success in the wild depends on how well they adapt from being in captivity and on the availability of prairie dogs. Periodic outbreaks of sylvatic plague have wiped out entire prairie dog colonies, some of which are in areas where ferrets have been reintroduced. At the Espee Ranch, the U.S. Geological Survey is testing a new vaccine in the form of peanut butter-flavored bait. Prairie dogs once lived on 20,000 acres of the ranch, but a 2010 outbreak of the plague reduced the prairie dog's presence to 3,000 acres before expanding to its current 5,000 acres, said Jennifer Cordova of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Each of the ferrets released Wednesday has a microchip that allows wildlife officials to track them. Another population, which was the first reintroduced to Arizona in the Aubrey Valley near Seligman, now is considered sustainable with more than 100 breeding adults...more