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Public Comment Period Opens for Reintroduction of Black-Footed Ferret to Wyoming

Ryan Hagerty
/
USFWS

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife is asking people to weigh in on a proposal to designate Wyoming as a special area for the reintroduction of the endangered black-footed ferret.

Fish and Wildlife would work with the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish to release the endangered predator onto the property of landowners who volunteer.

Fish and Wildlife representative Ryan Moehring says that landowners will likely be eager, since the black-footed ferret’s sole diet is prairie dogs.

“Given the unique and sometimes challenging relationship landowners have with prairie dogs, in our experience black-footed ferrets are often welcome guests,” Moehring says.

Moehring says he thinks there’s symmetry to reintroducing the black-footed ferret to Wyoming, since that’s where they were rediscovered in 1981. Before that, the black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct.

“Just outside Meteetse, Wyoming, a rancher’s dog named Shep found what was one member of the last remaining population of black-footed ferrets in the entire country; really, the entire world,” Moehring says.

The public comment period ends June 9.

Erin Jones is Wyoming Public Radio's cultural affairs producer, as well as the host and senior producer of HumaNature. She began her audio career as an intern in the Wyoming Public Radio newsroom, and has reported on issues ranging from wild horse euthanization programs to the future of liberal arts in universities. Her audio work has been featured on WHYY Philadelphia’s The Pulse and the podcast Out There.
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