Government shutdown threatens survival of one of North America's rarest animals

SF Gate ^ | October 8, 2025 | By Sam Hill

[Oldeconomybuyer]

As the federal government shutdown drags on into a second week, a critical animal recovery program based in Colorado has ground to a halt, delaying a reintroduction plan that could be crucial to the survival of an endangered species.

Fewer than 1,000 black-footed ferrets remain on the planet, including around 280 captive-bred ones currently being housed at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to reintroduce them at 15 sites across federal, tribal and private lands this fall, according to the conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. Instead, the creatures are caught in the political crossfire, with the program at a standstill due to furloughed employees and travel restrictions, the nonprofit wrote in a news release.

“If we can’t get those ferrets on the ground, it would be incredibly unfortunate,” Chamois Andersen, a senior representative with Defenders of Wildlife, told SFGATE in a phone interview.

It’s crucial that the ferrets be released during this optimal window, Andersen said, because they need time to acclimatize to the wild prairies of the Great Plains and prepare for the winter months.

“This is the time of year when kits would typically leave their parents and make a living on their own,” she said. “They’ll learn to hunt and survive before winter hits and hopefully den up with one another to bolster the overall population with kits come spring.”

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: journalism; media; press; shutdown

[dynachrome]

I’ve been hearing about these for a number of years. They’re cute, but the effort and cost isn’t worth it. Plenty of regular ferrets to go around. Too bad demo-rats aren’t an endangered species.

[ggboss]

Reminds me of one of my favorite bumper stickers of the 60s: “nuke the whales“

Time for an upgraded sticker “F – – – the ferrets.”

[Dusty Road]

If you’re going to raise and release Blackfooted Ferrets you’ll need lots of land and Prairie Dog’s.

[bert]

There are no restrictions on spending your own time and money to accomplish the critical release.

[GingisK]

Darwin clearly supports evolving into a government subsidized entity.

[bert]

That would seem to be a great master’s degree thesis

“Government as a Biological Evolutionary Force”

[bk1000]

Endangered ferrets. This all they’ve got??

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“This is the time of year when kits would typically leave their parents and make a living on their own,”

LOL…now apply to all 35 year old antifa living in mom and dad’s basement.

[blueunicorn6]

Several years ago, in Montana, the government fenced off a large area of land that contained a gopher colony. They then released Black Footed Ferrets into this enclosure.

Unfortunately, they had failed to remove the coyotes.

The coyotes feasted on ferret and wiped them out.

The only thing to do is to have the government pay someone to raise fat, slow, tasty gophers for the ferrets to eat.

I am willing to provide these nutritious rodents to the government at the low, low price of $25,000 each.

A bargain.

[hal ogen]

Typical government “worker” parasites screwing something up.

Why don’t one of the uber-wealthy greenie billionaires step up? I guess greenie lefties ONLY enjoy blowing OPM (Other people’s money).

[girlangler]

So the Defenders of Wildlife frauds can’t “save” an animal without government assistance? I call BS on this article, and the newspaper ought to be ashamed to run it.

[WashingtonSource]

This is Babylon Bee worthy.

[catnipman]

here that Democrats: ya’ll are directly responsible for the extinction of the black-footed ferrets!

[wjcsux]

If they actually cared about these critters, they would figure out how to care for them.

[BlackbirdSST]

“If we can’t get those ferrets on the ground, it would be incredibly unfortunate,” Chamois Andersen, a senior representative with Defenders of Wildlife, told SFGATE in a phone interview.

How many millions of dollars do we pay someone to walk into the woods and open a cage door?

[Wuli]

So more mice and rabbits in the wild will survive, and/or competitors of the ferrets will gain from the loss of the ferrets. NATURE writ large will not suffer.