Black-footed ferret

Black-footed ferret
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Mustelidae
Genus:	Mustela
Species:	M. nigripes
Binomial name
Mustela nigripes (Audubon & Bachman, 1851)
Synonyms[2][3]
Putorius nigripes Audubon and Bachman, 1851

The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), also known as the American polecat^[4] or prairie dog hunter,^[5] is a species of mustelid native to central North America.

The black-footed ferret is roughly the size of a mink and is similar in appearance to the European polecat and the Asian steppe polecat. It is largely nocturnal and solitary, except when breeding or raising litters.^[6][7] Up to 90% of its diet is composed of prairie dogs.^[8][9]

The species declined throughout the 20th century, primarily as a result of decreases in prairie dog populations and sylvatic plague. It was declared extinct in 1979, but a residual wild population was discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming in 1981.^[10] A captive-breeding program launched by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service resulted in its reintroduction into eight western US states, Canada, and Mexico from 1991 to 2009. As of 2015^[update], over 200 mature individuals are in the wild across 18 populations, with four self-sustaining populations in South Dakota, Arizona, and Wyoming.^[1][11] It was first listed as "endangered" in 1982, then listed as "extinct in the wild" in 1996 before being upgraded back to "endangered" in the IUCN Red List in 2008.^[1] In February 2021, the first successful clone of a black-footed ferret, a female named Elizabeth Ann, was introduced to the public.^[12]