black-footed ferrets
bleimanb | October 21, 2008Two black-footed ferret kits have been born at the Smithsonian National Zoo after their mothers were artificially inseminated by decade-old frozen sperm. The kits' fathers, deceased now for seven and eight years respectively, had provided sperm in 1997 and 1998 as a part of the Smithsonian's initiative to rescue the black-footed ferret from the doorstep of extinction.
Can I call you...dad?
Because prairie dog populations (black-footed ferrets' primary source of food) have been depleted by over 98% in the wild, so have the ferrets. In the 1990's they were presumed extinct until a population…