Back from extinction

This is a summertime black-footed ferret. Thirty-five years ago they were thought extinct, but a tiny population was discovered in Wyoming. Then that population was threatened with disease, leading to the eighteen remaining individuals captured and a captive breeding initiated. Subsequently, biologists began carefully monitored releases in several locations in western US states. Success varied, but today it is usually estimated that a few hundred to a thousand individuals live in the wild. One of those release sites is a few miles from my home, in Wind Cave National Park. I spend a lot of time there, but the nocturnal ferrets are rarely seen. I have on four occasions seen them in daylight (way more than most people. Once a year ago February and now this summer, I managed to get images.

This was at a sun-up stake-out of a prairie dog burrow where I had glimpsed a ferret. I hoped it might be a den/litter site, and I was rewarded the first of four stake-outs with seeing two individuals...and images of this one. This is an example of him peeking out of the burrow. I did manage a few others with him fully above ground as well.

This is a moderate crop, primarily to minimize the tangle of background vegetation. I shot wide open for the lens, f4, ISO 1600, 1/500, 400mm, D610.