Ferret - Lady and Tramp

Lady and Tramp are domestic ferrets and they were bred to be pets. They arrived here as their owner could not look after them anymore.

Unfortunately, their wild cousins are highly endangered.

The wild Black footed ferrets have broader heads than these domestic ferrets and their faces are more blunt and less pointed, their legs and feet are black or dark brown, giving them the name black-footed.

Massive hunting and poisoning campaigns against the prairie dog, its main food source, caused the ferret to decline.

The last wild black-footed ferrets were taken into captivity in 1987. They were bred in captivity and today, some ferrets have been reintroduced to a few limited areas in the state of Wyoming.

The Black-footed Ferret is the only endangered domestic animal on earth!

And all of the black-footed ferrets alive today descended from just 18 individuals!