20 Animals You Might Not Know Are Going Extinct

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Ferrets

The Black-Footed ferret is one of the most endangered animals in America. The Black-Footed ferret's diet consists almost entirely of prairie dogs, which unfortunately have decreased significantly in number since the early 1900s, when populations were targeted by farmers and land owners who viewed them as pests. By the 1970,s Black-Footed ferrets were assumed to be extinct in the wild, but in the 1980s a colony of

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Photo by: Thinkstock

Ferrets

The Black-Footed ferret is one of the most endangered animals in America. The Black-Footed ferret's diet consists almost entirely of prairie dogs, which unfortunately have decreased significantly in number since the early 1900s, when populations were targeted by farmers and land owners who viewed them as pests. By the 1970,s Black-Footed ferrets were assumed to be extinct in the wild, but in the 1980s a colony of ferrets was found in Wyoming and were heavily monitored. The later generations of the ferrets were captured and placed in a protective breeding program after plague and canine distemper killed the majority of their colony.

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