Ten black-footed ferrets were reintroduced by Arizona Game and Fish into the Aubrey Valley and Double O Ranch area of Coconino and Yavapai counties. It’s the first time in more than 15 years that the department has attempted to successfully bring the species back into Arizona.
The department made similar recovery efforts in the early 2000s, but years later, it began to notice a steep decline in population. Scientists tracked the problem to a bacterial disease that prairie dogs carry.
Prairie dogs are hunted by black-footed ferrets, and while they’re able to live with the disease, the ferrets are not. Prior to their release, the ferrets were vaccinated for the disease to increase their recovery chances.
Holly Hicks is a biologist at the department. She said that the ferrets hunting prairie dogs helps with overpopulation, something that can reduce the spread of disease to other animals and help Arizona farmers.
“They don’t want to see these populations being too high because they feel that it’s a competition with the forage for their cattle,” Hicks said.
Hicks added that this will be the first of six ferret releases over the next three, years with two more to happen in April 2025. She also said that the department is the first of four groups in the country to successfully release them into the wild.
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The bald eagle teetered on the edge of extinction in the 1960s. Programs like the Arizona Game and Fish Department's efforts to document bald eagle nests have aided a steady recovery.
