Declared extinct twice, the black-footed ferret is raising its own young in the Badlands

The black-footed ferret has been written off twice: declared extinct in the wild in 1974 and in captivity in 1980. Then, in 1981, a farm dog in Wyoming brought one home — and biologists found 18 survivors, the ancestors of every living ferret today. Reintroduced to Badlands National Park in 1996–99 with 147 animals, the population now holds at about 120 there, with about 80 more in Conata Basin, and it is one of the few populations sustaining itself — breeding successfully without captive top-ups. Rangers still vaccinate ferrets and treat prairie-dog burrows against plague-carrying fleas to keep it that way. Full recovery would take about 3,000 ferrets, but a species erased twice is, quietly, holding its own.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program