In 1981, a dog in Wyoming accidentally killed a small creature. This ironically, brought back an almost extinct species. Decades later, cloning is keeping its genes alive

In 1981, a ranch dog in Meeteetse, Wyoming, slaughtered a small animal and brought the corpse home. When John and Lucille Hogg took the dead body to a taxidermist, he told them to approach the government. The animal turned out to be a black-footed ferret, an animal that was thought to have gone extinct. Since then, the species has recovered from eighteen known individuals, been reintroduced in hundreds into prairie dog towns across the Great Plains, and, in recent years, been cloned from cells that had been stored in a freezer since before the majority of today's park visitors were born. This is one of the most bizarre recovery stories in American conservation.

The sole native ferret in North America spent the twentieth century slipping into oblivion. Across the plains, prairie dogs were poisoned by ranchers, and ferrets both ate them and took refuge in their tunnels. According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, scientists believed the species was extinct by the 1950s, discovered a surviving enclave in South Dakota in 1964, and then watched that one disappear as well. In 1979, the final survivor of an unsuccessful captive breeding operation passed away.

Then, on September 26, 1981, one was killed by Shep, a ranch dog, close to a ranch house outside of Meeteetse, Wyoming. The discovery brought scientists to the last known wild colony of mammals on Earth, which numbered about 130.


However, according to Science Blog, in the middle of 1985, the ferrets and the prairie dogs fell prey to Sylvatic plague, a bacterial disease. Canine distemper made one ferret after the other its victim. To save the black-footed ferret, six of them were taken into captivity. All of them died from distemper. However, six more were caught and survived in quarantine. Its 1986 season yielded nothing, most likely due to the fact that there were only young males available. In late January of 1987, goalkeepers paired the animals and bided their time. Artificial insemination was unsuccessful. Just as females were cycling into breeding condition, males appeared to be cycling out of it.

The final ferret captured in the wild was significant. He was an adult named Scarface, and he and a female named Becky produced the first six kits born in captivity, increasing the global population by a third. Thirteen litters were produced by fourteen females in the subsequent season.

Between 1996 and 1999, Badlands got 147 ferrets that were born in captivity, according to the National Parks Hub. These ferrets were released into the prairie dog colonies in the Conata Basin, which is at the southern part of the park. What makes the Badlands population special, compared to other places where ferrets have been brought back, is that no one has needed to add more ferrets from captivity since the first ones were released. Sylvatic plague, which is part of the same family of diseases as the historical human plague, first appeared in the prairie dog colonies of Conata Basin in 2008 and has come back several times since.

The most recent occurrence was during a serious drought in 2024. The plague harms prairie dogs directly, which causes ferrets to lose both their food and homes, and the plague can also make ferrets sick. Park biologists now give ferrets vaccines to protect them from the disease and spread insecticide in prairie dog burrows to kill the fleas that pass the disease between different groups of prairie dogs. Population numbers in the broader Conata Basin, Badlands, and Buffalo Gap area have changed a lot over time. In 2007, there were about 355 ferrets.

Then, in 2013, a disease caused the number to drop to around 50. By 2024, the population had recovered to about 250. But in 2025, drought and another disease hit at the same time, causing the number to fall below 100 again. It's a group that keeps showing it can rebuild itself and keeps having to.

In the late 80s, one of the Meeteetse ferrets named Willa passed away without producing a kit. A researcher decided to send some of her tissues to the Frozen Zoo at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where they were left untouched for decades.

In 2020, a miracle happened. Those cells produced a clone of the ferret, and it was named Elizabeth Ann. Three more clones of Willa – Antonia and Noreen – arrived in 2023.

The following year, Antonia produced offspring for a recovery effort, becoming the first cloned endangered mammal in history. Willa is now the eighth founder, with fifteen animals in the breeding population retaining her genes thanks to Revive & Restore, which conducted the cloning alongside government and zoo partners. Another set of kits, all descended from the clones, was reported by the Fish and Wildlife Service in the middle of 2025.

It's odd to be able to state that a ferret that passed away during the Reagan era is currently a functional component of the breeding programme.