Could it be a safety concern? Black-footed ferrets are very good diggers, as well as being a size small enough to get eaten by a bird of prey. The exhibit would likely need to be both netted and dig proofed for it to even by a possibility. I've never worked with Black-footed ferrets, but I know domestic ferrets are exceptional escape artists. I'd expect blackfoots to be the same way.I wonder why zoos do not regularly give this species access to outdoor enclosures, kind of strange.
From what I can gather through looking at shots in the gallery there seems to be a tendency to house this species in education buildings / exhibits (which is awesome in educational terms) like these:
Louiseville zoo:
Amarillo zoo:
Smithsonian National zoo:
El Paso zoo :
But though I like the idea of visitors being able to see these species and learn about them I do think that these animals should have access to outdoor enclosures.
The only image in the gallery that I can find that shows an outside enclosure (sort of) for the species is this one in Fort Worth Zoo:
I'm curious as to why this isn't being done, maybe a zoochatter who knows more about this species in zoos could explain why ?
Photo credits to @Moebelle, @Arizona Docent, @geomorph and @snowleopard.
The black footed ferret in US zoos
- Thread starter Onychorhynchus coronatus
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Onychorhynchus coronatus
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Yes, I imagine it could be what you describe with possibility of escapes but with predators, I dont know, I mean there are plenty of open topped exhibits with meerkats and other small mammals, right?
I'm wondering whether it might have something to do with disease transmission, but not too sure.
I've always wondered the same thing about open topped Prarie Dog Exhibits- wouldn't a hawk steal a Prarie dog? Its just a risk I wouldn't take with any small Mammal- let alone a critically endangered one.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Very true, of course, but I can see some utility in this in terms of priming individuals of a species about to be reintroduced to the wild (obviously not the case for prarie dogs or black footed ferrets kept at zoos) as it is necessary that these are exposed to the predators in order to learn the appropriate response to avoid predation once released.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
But what you say about escape being one of the possible reasons for not providing black footed ferrets with outdoor enclosures I would say that with regards to these animals being able to dig / tunnel their way out that probably holds true.
However, there are zoos in Europe for example which keep mustelids like common polecat, ratel, wolverines, American mink (which are clearly not without the risk of escape) and even threatened or endangered species such as marbled polecat and Eurasian mink in these sorts of setups.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Interesting documentary on Canadian / US zoo role in reintroduction of black footed ferrets to Canada :
I am not sure of the specifics but USFW are very involved with how zoos exhibit BFFs and I would assume that the lack of outdoor enclosures is due to the concern of introduced diseases to individuals that are exhibited. Diseases like canine distemper is a big one and can be spread to them if they come into contact with infected wild animals and an outdoor enclosure increases that risk. All animals that you normally see on exhibit and any that would be in an outdoor enclosure are going to be retired from the breeding program due to age or poor breeding history. Because of this, these are usually older animals that sometimes have harder times moving around enclosures which increases predation risk and sometimes need individual care such as medication which is harder to give to these very hands off animals. They are also solitary so a large outdoor enclosure for one elderly ferret or rotated between a couple usually isn't worth the zoo's time or money. All these animals are bred indoors in bare bones breeding set ups and may not be used to a more "natural" outdoor set up for their retirement so a lot of these indoor enclosures are set up similarly to these breeding set ups.
Something to remember is that USFW does not officially "retire" any ferret. All ferrets have the potential to be released even if the chances are low for these exhibited ferrets. Because of this, they all need to be cared for in almost the same way as any releasable ferret.
Something to remember is that USFW does not officially "retire" any ferret. All ferrets have the potential to be released even if the chances are low for these exhibited ferrets. Because of this, they all need to be cared for in almost the same way as any releasable ferret.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Thanks for your comment @Echobeast ! Much appreciated!
It really makes sense from what you've mentioned why the outdoor enclosures would be mostly superfluous to requirements with concerns about disease and elderly individuals vulnerable to predation etc.
Its interesting that you mention that the USFW does not officially "retire" any ferret because surely some of the older individuals would not be beyond their reproductive years and would also be highly unlikely to survive release ?
In the documentary I posted above the relatively low survivorship of the animals released (9 survived out of 30 released) didn't really come as a shock to me as there is always attrition during reintroductions but it does highlight the challenges of this programme (still all things considered it has done remarkably well).
Correct there are plenty of ferrets that are not candidates for release but with how bottlenecked the population is, one bad winter or disease outbreak could loosen those release candidate requirements so no ferret is officially removed from the population even when they “retire”.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
I see , once again thank you for sharing !
It is indeed at a bottleneck isn't it ?
I believe it was only 18 animals that were originally caught in Wyoming and that formed the founding captive population, right ?
And only 7 actually bred. The recent cloned BFF is from a formerly dead genetic line so it was a huge breakthrough.
Potentially yes. When Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum opened their small grasslands exhibit, the prairie dog was open topped. All the prairie dogs disappeared over time due to predation, so now it is enclosed. It is uglier to be sure, but at least the prairie dogs are still there.
Black-footed ferrets make bad display animals because they are strictly nocturnal. However since more zoos are doing evening openings (a great idea IMO), I don't see why some can't do it. Sadly the only zoo in Arizona that has them - Phoenix Zoo - keeps them completely off exhibit. I think I remember seeing a public exhibit years ago in the current indoor frog building on Arizona Trail, but there was no underground burrow viewing so of course I did not see the animal.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, totally agree, I thought the recent cloning of the species was amazing work !
Do you know if there have been any reported fitness or genetic disorder issues with the BFF because of this bottleneck ?
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, I imagine the nocturnality makes them a poor display animal but within nocturnal house exhibits like those mentioned by @TinoPup this issue with display could be improved.
I'm not representative of the average member of the zoo going public but to be honest I could quite easily watch a black footed ferret sleeping and be impressed and engaged given what the species represents in a wider sense for conservation.
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I'm not sure if there are any confirmed disorders linked to inbreeding but they do run into health issues past breeding age so luckily if these are linked to inbreeding, it doesn't seem to have an effect on their fitness. The biggest issue is disease control as them being so closely related to each other a single outbreak can wipe them out.
Another issue probably unrelated to their genetic bottleneck is the low survivorship of released individuals and low breeding success of those individuals in the wild. Lots of work is being done with behavior modification and how we can improve the breeding set ups to better success of individuals that are released.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Good to hear that there are no genetic disorders and no severe issues with fitness but yes that is concerning about vulnerability to diseases.
I know you mentioned canine distemper as being of particular concern but I think that bubonic / sylvatic plague is also an issue that has wiped out reintroduced populations and their prey base right ?
Very interesting about the behaviour modification, obviously reintroduction efforts are always going to have at least some level of attrition but it is an evolving science of conservation biology and there are always improvements on the horizon that come with research.
What would you say is the main driver of low survivorship of reintroduced ferrets, predation or disease ?
Yes Plague is a huge issue too. Wild prairie dogs are often vaccinated for it via air dropped treats laced with the vaccine.
From what I hear it's the ability to survive winters that is causing a lot of issues. Something with the way we are training the ferrets to survive is not translating to surviving winters that they theoretically should be able to. Disease is probably second.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
In the documentary I posted above it mentions that the released ferrets are given vaccines before release and offspring of these are also caught and vaccinated against it but I suppose the key thing is ensuring that their prey base isn't wiped out by plague and from what I gather that does occur from time to time.
I see, that is quite suprising and I wasn't expecting that at all, what do you think is not working with the pre-release training that doesn't translate to survivorship of these animals during winters ?
They both get the vaccine. It's not only that they are afraid the prairie dogs will die out, it's that they don't want the prairie dogs to spread it to the ferrets.
That's the million dollar question. It's a recent observation and something they are working on now.
Coincidentally I just received my first issue of my subscription to Arizona Wildlife Views, published every other month by Arizona Game & Fish Commission. They are looking for volunteers to spotlight for ferrets during night surveys in summer. It's not something I have time to do, but it would be an opportunity to see them in the wild...