It's the day to celebrate our native species, the black-footed ferret.This is a different kind of animal than the ferrets that are  pets, which originated in Europe.Ours once lived throughout the Western plains from Canada to Mexico. The black-footed ferret is seriously endangered, mainly because of it's symbiotic relationship with prairie dogs. Not only do the chubby rodents make up most of it's diet, but also where the ferret lives, which is in abandoned burrows in the midst of prairie dog towns. Over the last century, with humans taking over the habitat for factory ranching & housing developments, prairie dogs have been considerably eradicated with poison & bombs tossed into their burrows, wiping out entire colonies, along with the other animals that depend on them, such as burrowing owls, ferrets & certain types of toads. There are very few prairie dog colonies left & even fewer ferrets.

    Most of the remaining ones were taken into a captive breeding program, which then led to some of them being reintroduced back into the wilds. Their sucessful reproduction depends on whether humans can restrain themselves from covering every inch of Western North America with concrete.