Animals That Would Have Gone Extinct Without Zoos

Black-footed ferrets, which are just as adorable as the ferrets you can get as pets, used to roam the plains of America, preying on the native prairie dog population and thriving. Any time humanity enters the equation, however, things tend to take a turn for the worst. All signs pointed to the ferrets going extinct due to habitat loss, humanity's natural spread, plague, and a decrease in the prairie dog population (according to Defenders of Wildlife). But a small population of black-footed ferrets was found in 1981, according to Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and zoos around America wasted no time getting a plan in place. 

By 1988, reintroduction had already begun, and efforts to rebuild the population were well underway at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia. Thanks to this facility alone, 1,029 black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced across the American West and beyond, with there now being 28 reintroduction sites spread around Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Mexico, Canada, and Mexico. Some 139 of those reintroduced animals were from artificial insemination. Outside of the SCBI, six zoos are responsible for the births of over 7,000 black-footed ferrets, 2,600 of which have been reintroduced into their natural habitat. 

According to the Smithsonian, every single year, as many as 220 black-footed ferrets are released into the wild. Sadly, threats still exist, and the wild population still struggles to sustain more than a few hundred individuals, according to The Nature Conservancy. 

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