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Black-footed ferret documentary premiered at local ferret show

Susan NC Price's photo
Chicago Pets Examiner
Many of the vendors are also competitors, bringing ferrets for the show judging as well as products to sell (and support their show travels, perhaps?)Rafles started an hour after the show opened and continued all day.Some of the many events around the main event--the judging if ferrets at this AFA event, organized annually by the Greater Chicago Ferret Association.12 photosView the full slideshow »
Travis Livieri of Prairie Wildlife Research appeared in person as well as on screen, talking about the rescuing of the Black-footed ferret from the brink of extinction.

Visitors and exhibitors at the Greatest Ferret Show on Earth (GFSOE) in Villa Park this past Saturday, October 8, 2011, learned that BFF means something quite different to wildlife biologists than to young women. When researchers speak of BFFs, they mean not best friends forever but black-footed ferrets.

A splendidly filmed and captivating documentary about the BFF, The Return of the Prairie Bandit, premiered at the GFSOE. Travis Livieri, the head scientist on the featured reintroduction (in a prairie dog colony in a national park in Saskatchewan) also introduced the film and was available for questions all day.

View slideshow: at the Greatest Ferret Show 2011

The only ferret species native to North America, the black-footed ferret also has a severly restricted diet, eating only prairie dogs. As a result, the collapse of prairie dog colonies in the 19th and early 20th centuries following extensive hunting and poisoning nearly led to the extinction of this feisty little predator. In fact, between their rarity, shyness and nocturnal habits, they had been assumed to be extinct until their rediscovery in Wyoming on the 1980s. The subsequent capture of this colony, for breeding in zoos around the globe, has resulted in about 2600 individuals being reintroduced to the wild, with about 1000 wild-born survivors now known.

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I hope The Return of the Prairie Bandit finds a home somewhere like the Discovery Channel. But in case it doesn't, I bought a copy to share with my friends. The Prairie Wildlife Research folks also had patches, pins and other bff-related merchandise for sale, proceeds going to support continued black-footed ferret research and reintroduction to the wild.

If you missed the GFSOE but would like to learn more about black-footed ferrets and the re-establishment of wild colonies, Rachel Santymire, PhD, Director of the Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Rachel Bergren, VP for Education, will have more to say at the November 17 Wine & Wildlife event, 6-8 p.m. at the zoo.

For a looks at some other events from the GFSOE, including some of the ferrets in costume, see the accompanying slide show

The documentary showed how the ferrets were released into prairie dog tunnels.
The documentary showed how the ferrets were released into prairie dog tunnels.
Photo credit: 
Screenshot from documentary, Return of the Prairie Bandit

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Susan NC Price has enjoyed animals her whole life. Her dog takes her on daily walks and her albino ferret attempts to hide any soft, shiny or crinkly items within reach whenever he's let loose.

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