American ferret - description, habitat, lifestyle

The content of the article

1 Appearance description
2 Habitat
3 What do they eat
4 Living and breeding conditions
5 Appearance
6 Conservation and reproduction activities

The American, or how it is otherwise called the black-footed ferret, belongs to the predatory representatives of the marten family. One of the features that distinguishes him from his other kinsmen of ferrets is his short body length and light weight. That is, with a weight of one kilogram, or even less, this individual rarely exceeds 45 cm in length.

Appearance description

The color of the coat is usually tan and darker on the back, and the tip of the tail and legs are black. An interesting fact is that by 1937 of the last century, this subspecies of ferrets was almost completely destroyed in Canada. But, starting in 1980, their numbers began to be gradually restored by artificial breeding. After that, bred in specially created conditions, individuals were gradually returned to their previous habitat. Despite the fact that today the number of trochees has grown significantly, it is still, starting in 1967, continues to be listed in the Red Book of North America as an endangered species.

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Habitat

The homeland of the American ferret is North America, where they live on the great plains. The ferret is awake and hunting exclusively in the dark. But, the lack of light does not prevent him from getting his own food, because ferrets have excellent hearing and smelling organs. A miniature size helps to easily penetrate even the narrowest holes to catch small rodents. But ferrets sleep “dead” sleep in order to recover from the excitement and stress that the animal usually experiences during the hunt. From which the expression went - to sleep “like a ferret”. In addition, an interesting feature of American ferrets is that after penetrating into the hole to their prey and its capture, the first leave this hole for themselves for permanent or temporary residence.

Females are less active than males. And in the winter season their activity is reduced, in comparison with the summer period. They begin to hunt less because of the difficulties of moving along the snow cover, and more often prefer to stay in holes, eating exclusively their stocks.

Ferrets are single. They lead a separate way of life, practically do not contact their relatives, with the exception, probably, only of the “mating” period.

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What do they eat

Usually, on average, ferrets consume between 50 and 70 grams of meat per day. In this case, most often the diet of American ferrets is made by rodents, less often - small birds and insects. But their main delicacy is gophers, or as they are commonly called in those parts - steppe dogs. To get enough, one ferret needs to eat about 250 gophers a year. A typical colony of meadow dogs lives in an area of approximately 50 hectares of steppe.

In the middle of the last century, mass poisoning and extermination of dogs in the United States began in connection with the development of land by local farmers. Which was the main reason for the active extinction of ferrets. After all, the latter were virtually left without food.

Living and breeding conditions

In early spring, individuals of this species, as a rule, begin the breeding season. After which, after about 1.5 months, cubs are born, the number of which rarely exceeds 5 pieces. This feature is characteristic exclusively for American ferrets, unlike their forest and steppe relatives, whose litter can exceed 8 puppies.

In the wild, animals do not live long - until about 4 years.What can not be said about their relatives raised in captivity - their life expectancy can reach as much as 9 years. Whereas they reach puberty by the year of life.

Appearance

The American ferret, like most of the marten family, has an elongated body on thin short legs, an elongated muzzle. And a 15-centimeter fluffy tail. They have an intricate color: yellowish brown at the ends, closer to the roots it turns white, and the legs and tip of the tail are black. Also, the black color of the fur frames the eyes, resembling “glasses”, which perform the function of additional masking. Males are larger than females. Like skunks, ferrets are capable of releasing an unpleasant odor in order to protect them, although they are not as harsh as skunks.

Conservation and reproduction activities

Help the black-footed ferret not to disappear from the face of the earth Federal and state agencies of the United States along with private farmers. They carry out all possible actions for their breeding and introduction into the wild.

This set of measures began to be carried out in the 80s of the last century, with the threat of the complete disappearance of American ferrets in nature. It was then that zoological scientists decided to increase their population by breeding in captivity and further accustoming them to life in natural conditions, and only after that - returning them back to the wild. This experiment paid off, and by 2007 the number of individuals exceeded 600 units, while for breeding them in the conditions of the scientific and zoological center, only 18 units of animals of different sexes were taken. It is known that in 2013, approximately 1,200 individuals lived in the wild. But nevertheless, this species is still listed in the Red Book. Therefore, to this day, work is underway to further increase the number of ferrets, until they can independently exist and survive in the wild.

For the people themselves, in this case farmers, ferrets are beneficial as they eat harmful meadow dogs, thereby helping to control their population. The latter are especially dangerous for livestock because they are carriers of various infections, one of which is bubonic plague. So it’s harm - a large number of burrows and tunnel systems belonging to ferrets and dogs often cause cattle injuries, every now and then falling into them.

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