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16 Endangered Species Tech. Bull. 1 (1991)

handle is hein.animal/endanspb0016 and id is 1 raw text is: January 1991 Vol. XVI No. 1 t - m - m - -lilli mm l -m m -lillik r-mMm m o-m - - -m r m m a- m-- muamm a ue mum or m.... m aN m..- m Uo m-.. m as m...m m m... m-. - - -.... - - -um-mm- -mm mm -m -m m wea Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Technical Bulletin Washington, D. C. 20240 Black-footed Ferret Recovery Effort Progresses Toward Reintroduction Many encouraging events have oc- curred since ouir last update on the black-footed ferret recovery program (see Bulletin Vol. XIV, No. 7). Efforts of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Depart- ment, other Federal, State, and Native American agencies, and private grotips to restore the Endangered black- footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) in the wild are gathering steam. Captive breeding, research, and investigations of possible reintroduction sites are proceeding in a number of areas. As a restilt of these recovery activities, the Service now anticipates that black- footed ferrets will be reintroduced into the wild in the fall of 1991. Captive Breeding All known black-footed ferrets are now in captivity. The worlds black- footed ferret poptulation reached 180 animals this fall, Up from 118 animals in 1989, throtigh captive breeding efforts at the Sybille Wildlife Re- search and Conservation Unit near Wheatland, Wyoming, the National Zoological Park's Conservation and Research Center at Front Royal, Vir- ginia, and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. A total of 63 kits were added to the three captive popti- lations, of which 50 were added to the Sybille population, 2 to the Omaha poptilation, and 11 to the Front Royal population. The total captive popula- tion is rapidly approaching the level in the recovery plan when ferrets can be- gin to be reintroduced into the wild. The last known population of black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) in the wild was discover- ed in 1981 in a white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) complex near Meteetse, Wyoming. In 1986, after disease struck the colony, the last survivors were taken for captive breeding. The entire captive population of 180 ferrets (fall 1990) descends from 18 of the Meteetse animals. At the Sybille Unit, several other noteworthy events have been recorded in the captive breeding effort. Sibe- rian polecats (Mustela eversmanni) played an important role in the stir- vival of several black-footed ferret kits. In 1989 and 1990, sUrrogate polecat mothers, bred at the same time as the ferrets, nursed the ferret kits when the black-footed ferret mothers failed to lactate. In 1990, for the first time at Sybille, a black-footed ferret kit stic- cessfully ntirsed from a black-footed ferret that was not its mother. Older female ferrets that failed to breed and viable females that reftised to accept males were also artificially insemi- nated in 1990, but this effort was tin- successful. The Henry Doorly Zoo had a suc- cessful breeding season in 1990, tun- like 1989 when the ferrets did not whelp as expected. Successful breed- ing resulted from a better understand- ing of the life and reproductive cycles of these animals, the introduction of new and better diets (including the addition of vitamin E), and the appli- cation of new techniqies, incltiding light-cycle manipulation to indtUce early estrus in black-footed ferret fe- males. Also in 1990, two black- footed ferrets at the zoo were sticcess- fully subjected to root canal surgery after breaking the tips off their canine teeth. Two more facilities are now partici- (continued on page 3) ENDANGERED SPECIES TECHNICAL BULLETIN Vol. XVI No. (1991) Digitized from Best Copy Available

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