National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Endangered Ferrets Face Plague Threat


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Plague outbreaks are closing in on the Conata Basin of South Dakota, where the largest group of endangered black-footed ferrets in the U.S. lives.

The ferrets were believed to be extinct in the 1970s after a U.S. government program nearly eradicated prairie dogs, which are ferret's primary prey.

Photograph by Charlene Bessken/BLM