Black Footed Ferret by Michelle
BlackFooted Ferrets Killed for their fur, Helpless and innocent, This beautiful creature must not be hunted. As arrows pierce this creature, it secretly begs for mercy. If you could help this creature, everybody would be happy, Make an effort to save it, before it’s too late…
Introduction The blackfooted ferret is a type of ferret native to North America. It was first spotted in 1851 by the Reverend John Bachman and John James Audubon. It was declared extinct in 1979, until a dog that belonged to a woman named Lucille Hoggs brought her master a dead blackfooted ferret to her doorstep. It was declared extinct again in 1981. However, a captive breeding program started raising blackfooted ferrets and now there are plenty of blackfooted ferrets that are being raised right now in captivity. Description A blackfooted ferret has black, brown, and white fur on its body. The feet of the creature are black and have some sharp claws on them for hunting. The face has two black eyes and whiskers next to the nose. The black footed ferret has a long body and a blunt head. It has a few whiskers on its face too. The ears are triangular, short, erect, and broad at the face. It’s face resembles the European and Steppe polecat. Prey and Predators The prey of the blackfooted ferret consists mainly of prairie dogs. They will only eat mice and voles when the prairie dogs are hibernating. The predators of the blackfooted ferret are
golden eagles, greathorned owls, coyotes, American badgers, bobcats, prairie falcons, ferruginous hawks, and prairie rattlesnakes. Habitat The habitats of the blackfooted ferret are shortgrass prairies, mixedgrass prairies, desert grasslands, shrub grass areas, sagebrush grass areas, mountain grasslands, and semiarid grasslands. You can find them in mostly Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Life Span The life span of a blackfooted ferret is about four years. They can also die from habitat loss, indirect poisoning, and humanintroduced diseases. Blackfooted ferrets are unfortunately susceptible to a large amount of diseases, such as canine distemper virus and tularemia. Male blackfooted ferrets seem to live longer than female ones. Why are they endangered and how we can help? The blackfooted ferret is endangered because hunters from the American Fur Company started killing the blackfooted ferrets. A disease called the Sylvatic Plague that was caused by blackfooted ferret bodies started killing off blackfooted ferrets. Luckily, there is a vaccination for Sylvatic Plague and now the blackfooted ferrets will be healthy for a while.
Bibliography Feldhammer, George A; Thompson, Bruce Carlyle; Chapman, Joseph A. [2003]. “Wild mammals of North America: Biology, management, and conversation”. JFU Press Belant J., Gober P. & Biggins, D. 2008. mustela nigripes. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3
Macdonald, D. [2001] The New Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford