Where is the black footed ferret on the food chain?

Answer 1

Black footed ferrets exact origin is unknown, but they first appeared in North America approximately 100,000 years ago, and came from across the Bering Strait.

The black footed ferret is native to North America in the grassland biome and are today found in the Great Plains states such as Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona where they live on prairie dog towns.The black footed ferret lives in the North American prairie and grassland. There are three distinct areas of prairie - Tallgrass prairie, Mixed-grass prairie and Shortgrass prairie. In the United States, the greatest stretch of grassland is the prairie, extending from the Appalachians in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Being in the center of the North American land mass, far from the moderating influence of major bodies of water, there is a great range of annual temperature.The dominant vegetation in these biotic communities is blue grama, mixed with galleta grass, Indian rice grass, and other grasses.

Black footed ferret habitat and food sourceBlack-footed ferrets are carnivores (meat-eaters) and their survival depends on prairie dogs as their main food source.Prairie dogs comprise 90 percent of the diet of

black-footed ferrets. A ferret family of 4 will consume an average 763 prairie dogs per year. A prairie dog is as large as or larger than a black-footed ferret. The ferret will attack a prairie dog below ground at night when the prairie dog is sleeping. The ferret places a bite on the neck or throat of the prairie dog to suffocate it. The close confines of the burrow make it difficult for their prey to escape. Black-footed ferrets eat all parts of the prairie dog and have sharp teeth that can easily shear through the prairie dog bones. They also eat small rodents such as mice, eggs and small reptiles.

Black footed ferrets do not dig their own burrows, and require the burrows of prairie dogs for shelter and to raise families, sometimes of prairie dogs they have eaten. Prairie dogs are rodents and live in aggregations called towns or colonies in burrows which can be as much as 15 feet deep and 60 feet long and sometimes connect with other burrows. Prairie dogs use prairie and grassland habitat ranging from the mid-west to the western United States. They are considered a key indicator species for the health of prairie and grassland habitat. When the black footed ferret takes a prairie dog burrow to live in, they alter it by backing out the dirt held against its chest and drags the dirt farther from the burrow entrance each time. The result is a trench 8-12 cm wide and up to 3.5 m long. These trenches are formed mostly at night and, if fresh, are a sure sign of the presence of a ferret as no other species of animal living in a dog town leaves this type of structure.

The Black-footed ferret has special adaptations, They are extremely, highly specialized predators with powerful jaws. With a bite to the back of the neck of it's prey - the prairie dog, can be twice it's size. The black footed ferret has a long, slender body and short legs that allows them to use the prairie dog's burrow for shelter. They spend a majority of their time in the burrows avoiding predators. Black-footed ferrets are primarily nocturnal and are active in winter.

Black footed ferret habitat lossBlack-footed ferrets - once ranged over a large area across the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain states and Canadian province and found on black-tailed prairie dog colonies across the Great Plains from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and on white-tailed and Gunnison's prairie dog colonies across the intermountain west. They used to be found in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming and portions of Canada and Mexico before becoming extinct in the wild. By 1986 they were completely gone from the wild. In the early 1900's humans eradicated prairie dogs and destroyed prairie dog habitat. Ranchers see the prairie dog as a competitor for the grass that cattle eat, so they have poisoned prairie dogs with harmful chemicals that sometimes killed other animals. Also, many prairie dog towns have been plowed over for crop fields or destroyed for human development. Diseases, like sylvatic plague, have also reduced prairie dog populations. Scientists estimated we have lost as much as 98% of the prairie dog habitat that once existed. As human encroachment and other factors reduced the populations of prairie dogs, this also reduced ferret populations.

The black footed ferret have been successfully reintroduced to 15 locations in their former range in the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Chihuahua, Mexico.

Black footed ferret are also exhibited in zoos across North America. You can see a black-footed ferret in a zoo since ferrets are very rare and difficult to see in the wild. Many zoos and several federal agency's visitor centers across North America have black-footed ferrets on display.

You can see a live black footed ferret at zoos in:

• Akron Zoo, Akron, OH (call to verify first)
• Binder Park Zoo, Battle Creek, MI
• Bramble Park Zoo, Watertown, SD
• Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado Springs, CO
• Dakota Zoo, Bismarck, ND
• Elmwood Park Zoo, Norristown, PA
• Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth, TX (call to verify first)
• Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE (call to verify first)
• Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City, UT
• Hutchinson Zoo, Hutchinson, KS
• Lake Superior Zoo, Duluth, MN
• Lee Richardson Zoo, Garden City, KS
• Louisville Zoological Gardens, Louisville, KY
• National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C.
• North Eastern Wisconsin Zoo, Green Bay, WI
• Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix, AZ
• San Antonio Zoological Gardens and Aquarium, San Antonio, TX
• San Diego Wild Animal Park, Escondido, CA
• Texas Zoo, Victoria, TX
• Toronto Zoo, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
• Zoo Montana, Billings, MT

Refer to links below for more detailed description:

Answer 2

Black footed ferrets are where at one time considered extinct in the wild, and are kept in breeding programs at zoos, and are now released onto protected government lands. The Black footed ferrets survival depend on the prairie dog as their main food source and live in the prairie dogs burrows. When the U S prairie land was being populated in the late 1800's by farmers and ranchers, the prairie dog was considered a rodent and a pest, and government programs to eradicate them was pursued aggressivley, reducing the population today by 98%. Even today, the government and land owners are still exterminating prairie dogs which are prey for many different animals.

Black-footed ferrets are carnivores (meat-eaters) and their main food source is the prairie dog. Prairie dogs are rodents and live in aggregations called towns or colonies. A prairie dog is as large as or larger than a black-footed ferret. The ferret attacks the prairie dog while it is sleeping below ground at night with quick bite to the neck to suffocate it. Black-footed ferrets have sharp teeth that can easily shear through the prairie dog bones and eats all parts of the prairie dog.

Black footed ferrets also eat small rodents such as mice, eggs and small reptiles.

Black-footed ferrets predators include coyotes, great-horned owls, golden eagles, prairie falcons, badgers, bobcats and foxes

Answer 3

Black-footed ferrets are carnivores (meat-eaters) that prey upon prairie dog, which is their main food source. Prairie dogs are rodents and live in aggregations called towns or colonies. A prairie dog is as large as or larger than a black-footed ferret. The ferret attacks the prairie dog while it is sleeping below ground at night with quick bite to the neck to suffocate it. Black-footed ferrets have sharp teeth that can easily shear through the prairie dog bones and eats all parts of the prairie dog. Black footed ferrets also eat small rodents such as mice, eggs and small reptiles.

Predators of the Black-footed ferret include coyotes, great-horned owls, golden eagles, prairie falcons, badgers, bobcats and foxes