David A. Eads (MS), dae33d@mizzou.edu

Black-footed Ferret Space Use and Resource Selection: Conservation and Management Implications

Advisors: Dr. Joshua J. Millspaugh, Dr. Dean E. Biggins (USGS), Dr. Matthew E. Gompper, and Travis Livieri (Prairie Wildlife Research)

Increased understanding of space use and resource selection in animals are important first steps in designing conservation efforts. Recent statistical and methodological advances afford conservation biologists with the opportunity to investigate space use and resource selection at increasingly finer scales, a trend that is particularly encouraging, because fine-scale variations in resources often mediate animal movements and interactions, and individual fitness. The precarious status of the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), an endangered musteline carnivore of the Great Plains and intermountain valleys of North America, and these advanced methods provided the impetus for our research on ferret space use and resource selection. Between May and November of 2007, we collected > 30 locations for each of 12 individual black-footed ferrets inhabiting a ~1100 acre black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony of the Conata Basin of western South Dakota, and hope to do so again during the 2008 field season. Using kernel-based utilization distributions and appropriate statistical extensions (e.g., multiple regression, volume of intersection index, etc.), we will assess space use and resource selection by these ferrets, and relate such processes to female ferret productivity, and to the proximate and evolutionary mechanisms driving ferret spacing patterns and interactions. In doing so, we aim to highlight the conservation and management implications of space use and resource selection in Mustela nigripes, and to identify ways in which wildlife managers may begin to conserve resources selected by ferrets, or resources promoting kit productivity. Several additional aspects of ferret ecology (e.g., prey class selection, interspecific interactions, etc.) are also under investigation. In general, we hope to develop models predictive of the relative potential of ferret reintroduction sites.

For more information on black-footed ferret conservation, please see the following websites, or check out the recent ferret symposium proceedings (last webpage below):

Black-footed Ferret Conservation Program - http://www.blackfootedferret.org/

Prairie Wildlife Research - http://www.prairiewildlife.org/

Proceedings of the Symposium on the Status of the Black-footed Ferret and Its Habitat - http://www.fort.usgs.gov/products/publications/21605/21605.pdf