Black-Footed Ferret Is Back

An endangered weasel is returning to an area of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.
Biologists plan to release 35 black-footed ferrets today near Meeteetse (me-TEET’-see). Scientists thought the black-footed ferret was extinct until a dog brought a dead one home near Meeteetse in 1981.
The discovery made tiny Meeteetse famous as the home of the slinky, nocturnal weasel. Black-footed ferrets appear on the town logo, in a downtown sculpture and even on coffee mugs in a local restaurant. But they’ve vanished from the wild around the town.
Biologists captured Meeteetse’s last ferrets for a captive-breeding program that has released hundreds of ferrets in the western U.S. Today’s release will be the first one back at the very spot where the black-footed ferret made its last stand in the wild.

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