Students try to release endangered mammals — but the critters don’t go quietly. See it
A group of students tried to release cute and seemingly harmless little mammals in Colorado — and the critters turned out to be bolder than they bargained for, video shows.
The students from Lamar Middle School were invited to release the creatures on a private landowner’s property as part of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s recovery program for the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered mammals in North America, the agency said.
The students released 14 kits and three adult ferrets, the agency said. The critters are predators that must sometimes be ferocious to stay alive.
“Black-footed ferrets are predators that (primarily) feed on prairie dogs,” the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southeast Region said Nov. 14 on X, formerly known as Twitter. “But prairie dogs are close to their size and they face predation from coyotes, foxes and owls, so they can be vicious! Listen to this ferret voice his anger at us.”
Video shows a student prodding at a ferret inside a cage, trying to encourage it to venture outside. It chatters at them in protest and darts its head outside the cage as if to warn them to stop.
Once the students manage to get one of the ferrets out from its cage, it boldly approaches the students rather than running off to freedom, video shows.
“Ferret on the loose! You never know what a wild animal is going to do and this black-footed ferret decided to run around and investigate the students there to let it free into the wild,” the agency said. “Luckily the students remained calm. Doubt they will forget this moment!”
Colorado is one of eight states that participates in recovery efforts via reintroducing the species, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife is one of more than 50 partner agencies involved in the effort, the agency said in a news release.
The animals were reintroduced to Colorado in 2001 in the western part of the state, but after dozens of the animals were released there over several years, a plague broke out and collapsed the reintroduction site by 2010, officials said.
Wildlife officials established a reintroduction strategy in the Eastern Plains in 2013 and released 300 ferrets to six sites over several years. Recovery efforts began on the May Ranch in 2021, when the agency and Commission Chairman Dallas May mapped the 20,000-acre ranch to see if it had enough acreage of prairie dogs to qualify for the program.
Three years later, officials say there’s evidence the ferrets have reproduced on the property.
