The Nation - News from Jan. 18, 1989

Several government agencies and private groups committed $72,000 to a trust fund for saving and reintroducing the world’s rarest mammal, the black-footed ferret, to the wild. The only known black-footed ferrets are in three captive breeding programs in Wyoming, Nebraska and Virginia. The Wyoming program at Sybille provided the ferrets for the other two states, Bill Morris, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, told reporters in Cheyenne. The Sybille captive program’s population reached 58 by last summer, allowing biologists to establish two programs at Front Royal, Va., and Omaha in the fall. The Black-Footed Ferret Trust Fund will be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.