Amanda Heyn, Laura Icenhour, & Evan Fitch

The Black-Footed Ferret

Background

• Black-Footed Ferrets are members of the weasel family (Mustelidae)

• Ferrets are nocturnal and do most hunting at night

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/black-footed-ferret.jpg

Background Cont’d

• The Black-Footed Ferret prey on prairie dogs and lives in their burrows

• Ferrets were thought

to be extinct• A population of ferrets

was found in 1981

http://www.nps.gov/wica/naturescience/images/Prairie-Dogs.jpg

Survival Factors

Cancer carried on recessive allele Susceptibility to Canine distemper

– A contagious, incurable, often fatal, multisystemic viral disease affecting the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems in mammals.

– Canine distemper is fatal for ferrets 100% of the time.

– First introduced to ferret population in 1981

Geographical Location

• Ferrets were once found throughout the Great Plains, from Texas to southern Saskatchewan, Canada.

• Since 1985, efforts have been made to breed the ferrets in captivity and then reintroduce them into the wild.

http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/ferret.asp

Bottleneck Effect

• Bottleneck effect refers to the reduction of a population’s gene pool and the accompanying changes in gene frequency produced when a few members survive the widespread elimination of a species.

• The black footed ferrets underwent a bottleneck effect resulting in the last wild population site of ferrets to be discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming 1981.

• About 25% of the original 19 founders’ genes have made it into the current population.

If canine distemper had been allowed to continue in the population in Wyoming…

• Would the prevalent genotypes reverse?

• Would the dangerous recessive allele lead to an increased number of ferret death?

Vensim Model

1

0.5

00 2 4 6 8 10

Time (Month)Homozygous Dominant : Current

Heterozygous : CurrentHomozygous Recessive : CurrentTotal Pop : Current

Genotypes

Vensim Key

Homozygous Dominant=Blue– As time increases dominant allele decreases

Homozygous Recessive=Green– As time increases dangerous recessive allele

levels off

Heterozygous=Red– As time increases heterozygous allele remains

unaffected

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

p² + 2pq + q² = 1

p + q =1

p2 =.33 Total Population=180

p=.57 HD=42

q=.43 HR=59

q2 =.18 H=79

2pq=.49

Hardy-Weinberg Graph

X axis=P

Y axis=Q

•As P increases Q decreases

•P=.57

•Q=.43

Pictures

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/08/10/black_footedferret1_wideweb__470x314,0.jpg

http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/images/black_footed_ferrets.jpghttp://www.pc.gc.ca/nature/eep-sar/itm3-/images/MikeLockhart2-.jpg

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2007/05/14/526310/BlackFootedFerrets04Web.jpg

Resources

• Averting Extinction, Tim W. Clark• Prairie Night; Brian Miller, Richard P.

Reading, and Steve Forrest• http://www.defenders.org/

wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/black-footed_ferret.php

• www.animalhealthgeneral.com