There was a short article in a recent Science News (SN:11/2/91, p.279)
that may be of interest to the folks on this list:

             Prairie dogs beware: the ferrets are back

   As of five years ago, predators and back-to-back epidemics had all but
extinguished the black-footed ferret.  ith the help of state and federal
scientists, however, the species is weaseling its way out of extinction.
Biologists rounded up the last surviving community of these ferrets in 1986
to launch a captive-breeding program (SN: 9/6/86 p.151).  Those 18 wild
animals provided the 49 juveniles that researchers have just finished
releasing into a prairie dog village in Shirley Basin, Wyo.
   Resident prairie dogs are already feeling the sting.  Weaned on prairie
dog meat, the newly released 10- to 14-week old ferrets "know how to kill
prairie dogs," says Stephen C. Torbit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
in Cheyenne, Wyo.  Besides serving as the main source of ferret food,
prairie dogs dig the burrows these masked squatters call home.
   But the newcomers don't have it easy.  Since the ferrets began arriving
in September, coyotes and a badger have killed five.  Such casualties were
bound to occur among animals lacking experience with predator avoidance,
Torbit notes.  "We had talked about mortality rates after a year -- or by
next spring -- of 85 to 90 percent," he says.  Two other ferrets -- one
with an eye infection, the other injured in a fight with a prairie dog --
are temporarily back in captivity for nursing.
   Some 269 black-footed ferrets remain in captivity.  If the breeding
program goes as planned, says Torbit, another 100 youngsters should be
available for release next fall.

[Posted in FML 0199]