Black-Footed Ferret Recovery: A Conservation Success Story

Conservation in Action Series. NCTC Historian, Dr. Mark Madison, hosts an interview with Pete Gober, the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Coordinator for the USFWS. March 18, 2015. In 1979, the black-footed ferret was feared to be extinct. Fortunately, this presumption proved wrong in 1981 when a small population was discovered on a ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. Tragically, the wild population succumbed to disease a few years later, but not before biologists had taken 18 ferrets into captivity in an effort to save the species. Those remaining individuals formed the basis of a successful captive-breeding program that has brought the species back from the brink.