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The ferret (Mustela furo) is a small, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (Mustela putorius), as evidenced by the ferret's ability to interbreed with European polecats and produce hybrid offspring. Physically, ferrets resemble other mustelids because ...
The modern classification arose in 1982 when Phillip M. Youngman placed the black-footed ferret into Putorius. [3] The ancestor of modern polecats and ferrets and earliest true polecat is considered to be Mustela stromeri, a smaller species whose size indicated polecats evolved at a late period.
The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), also known as the American polecat [4] or prairie dog hunter, [5] is a species of mustelid native to central North America. The black-footed ferret is roughly the size of a mink and is similar in appearance to the European polecat and the Asian steppe polecat. It is largely nocturnal and solitary ...
The black-footed ferret species was thought to be extinct in 1981, but was later rediscovered and has now been given a second chance thanks to conservation efforts. The aim is to work towards ...
The black-footed ferret is entirely dependent on another keystone species, the prairie dog. A family of four ferrets eats 250 prairie dogs in a year; this requires a stable population of prairie dogs from an area of some 500 acres (2.0 km 2).
The animal was a black-footed ferret, once abundant in the American West with a range that stretched into Canada and Mexico, but by the 1980s the species was believed to have been wiped out.
Six extant mustelid genera left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Martes, Meles, Lutra, Gulo, Mustela, and Mellivora Mustelidae is a family of mammals in the order Carnivora, which includes weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks, and wolverines, and many other extant and extinct genera.
Once thought to be extinct, the cloning is a first for a US endangered species, ushering a new era for North America's only ferret species. The black-footed ferret was believed extinct until 18 ...