I live near the Louisville Zoo, and this fall I'll be volunteering with the
seals, sea lions, and ferrets there.  They have a very successful breeding
program.  The Keeper IIs that work with the ferrets in the conservation
department are Guy Graves and Joanne Luyster.  A little info that I recieved
as a volunteer is this..
 
Due to the keepers dedication the Louisville Zoo along with a few other
Instituations can proudly say that 60 to 70% of the kits born in captivity
and released last year have survived one winter in the wild, an increase
from 40-50% since the program began releasing them in 1991.  Incidents such
as sylvatic plague, gov't supported poisoning campaigns and loss of habitat
wiped out more than 98% of the prairie dog population that once lived in the
Great Plains.  There were once an estimated 500,000 to one million BFFs in
the wild, and numbers were only 18 as of 1987.  They were captured and
placed into a captive breeding program.  The louisville zoo along with 6
other institutions volunteered to establish a goal of 240 breeding adults
for the sole purpose of releasing captive born kits back into the wild under
a nonessential experimental population designation which allows for ongoing
land uses.  The release sites are Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, South Dakota
and possibly Utah and Colorado.
 
55-60 kits have been born at the zoo each year since 1995.  The BFFs living
at the zoo are carefully monitored in the off exhibit Conservation Center
close to the Zoo hospital.  As of 1991, 156 kits along with 10 adults have
been released at specific sites in Wyoming.
 
I can write more i anyone else is interested, it goes on to say what the
gestation and feeding is,a nd how and when they are fed..
 
I am very excited and august cant come fast enough for me!
 
Misty Kay
 
[Moderator's note: Certainly interesting stuff and you're a great source
of inside info, but black-footed ferret discussion is sorta off-topic, at
least as a regular discussion... or do a large majority of subscribers care
to see more about BFF's?  Comments?  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2344]