BFF Recovery Program. The only ferret native to North America, the black-footed ferret (BFF) once thrived across grass prairies from Canada to Mexico. But today it is one of the most endangered mammals in North America. Black-footed ferrets came to the brink of extinction in the mid 1980s when only eighteen animals remained. The main cause of their decline was loss of habitat as a result of disease and extermination of prairie dogs, the ferrets’ primary food source.
Since 1991, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has worked with five other breeding facilities, including four AZA-accredited zoos and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center. This innovative breeding and reintroduction program is making significant progress toward recovering the native ferret population to North America’s Great Plains.
You can visit black-footed ferrets at the Zoo in The Loft
