Ferret reintroduction working in Arizona wild

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Weeks of tromping through grassy brush at 3 a.m., lugging a heavy backpack, shining a spotlight into the night looking for pairs of emerald-green eyes finally paid off for a team of state biologists.

Before dawn one morning, Arizona Game and Fish workers spotted their quarry, little masked critters staring back at the light.

The three wild-born black-footed ferret kits found that early morning in northwestern Arizona, and three more spotted the next, were the proof the state agency needed to show that a long-nurtured reintroduction program was working.

"This was the first time we found a litter, so it's good news, because we finally are showing that they are capable of surviving long enough to have offspring," said biologist Richard Winstead. "You need that to have a successful population."

Winstead's Kingman-based team has been focused since 1996 on nurturing a captive-raised population of ferrets to return them to the wild to live and breed.

Their work is part of a broader U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program to re-establish one of North America's most endangered animals in Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and, within the past few weeks, in Colorado and northwestern Mexico.

Around mid-May, Winstead and his team released 16 ferrets, including 10 pregnant females, in the Aubrey Valley, 30,000 square acres of grasslands and small shrubs between Peach Springs and Seligman, Ariz.

The area has the state's highest density of Gunnison's prairie dogs, the ferret's favorite prey, and the release was timed to prairie dog birthings, Winstead said.

Ten of the released animals wore radio collars. The team devoted 45 nights over five months to tracking in the animals, sometimes on foot.