DENVER (CBS4) - Black footed ferrets once hunted prairie dogs on Colorado's plains and western slope, but as humans built our communities, we wiped out their food source and they disappeared.

The black-footed ferret could also be called the black-eyed ferret because of the distinctive “stick-em up” mask that adorns its face. The tan ferrets also have black markings on their feet ...

The National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center, located about 60 miles north of Denver, is trying to save the species. The center breeds several hundred kits, or infant black-footed ferrets ...

In 1981, a dog named Shep in Wyoming changed that. One day, Shep came trotting home with a tiny critter in his jaw. The small animal was later identified as a black-footed ferret.

Black-footed ferrets usually consume between 1.7 to 2.4 ounces (50 to 70 grams) of meat per day. A domesticated ferret typically eats factory-made chow.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out from a carrier during a release of 30 ferrets by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National ...

Black-footed ferrets, among the most endangered mammals in North America, are staging a comeback in the Shirley Basin of Wyoming, scientists said Thursday. A decade after they were given up for ...

FWS pictures of black-footed ferret clones Antonia (main) and Noreen (inset). These ferrets are clones of a ferret named Willa who was captured in the 1980s.

In a "groundbreaking achievement," a clone of an endangered species of ferret has given birth to babies for the very first time. The mother, named Antonia, is a clone of another black-footed ...

A nocturnal species of weasel with a robber-mask-like marking across its eyes has returned to the remote ranchlands of western Wyoming where the critter almost went extinct more than 30 years ago.