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Black-footed ferret. This 2-foot-long, black-masked member of the weasel family once occurred

in central grasslands and basins from southern Canada to Texas but is now one of the most

endangered mammals in North America. In the early 1900s, the United States was likely home

to more than 5 million ferrets. But ferrets, which hunt prairie dogs for food and live in their

burrows, were almost wiped out early in the 20th century after agricultural development and

rodent poisons devastated prairie dog populations. Thirteen years after they were listed as

endangered in 1967, the last captive ferret died, and the animals were thought to be extinct in

North America. Then in 1981 a small relic population was discovered in a Wyoming prairie dog

colony. Between 1991 and 1999, about 1,200 ferrets from that population were released in

Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona and along the Utah/Colorado border. At least two of

those reintroduced populations are established and no longer require releases of captive-raised

ferrets. Biologists estimate there are now a total of about 1,410 black-footed ferrets living in the

wild.

Pileated gibbons. This species of gibbon is native to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and today

about 32,000 individuals exist in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation

of Nature. Like other gibbons, the pileated gibbon is arboreal and lives in monogamous pairs.

The animals are threatened by hunting and severe habitat loss.

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Black-footed ferrets. The black-footed ferret is now considered one of Americas top

conservation success stories even though the animal is still endangered. The species

declined throughout the 20th century, primarily as result of a decrease in prairie dogs the

ferrets' main prey which were exterminated as agricultural pests. In 1979, black-footed

ferrets were declared extinct, but in 1981, Lucille Hoggs dog brought a dead o ne back to

their Wyoming home, and scientists scrambled to find more, eventually locating a colony of

61 ferrets. Thanks to conservation efforts, about 1,000 of the animals are now thought to

live across the central U.S.

American crocodile. In pre-Columbian days, the coastal tip of S

crawling with thousands of American crocodiles. By the time they

in 1975, hunting for sport and skins as well as over collection fo

reduced their numbers to as few as 200. With the entire populatio

breeding females, living in one small area of northeastern Florida

were in stark danger of becoming little more than a memory. B

gaining Endangered Species Act protection, populations had gro

crocodiles had already returned too much of their historic range, f

Largo to Floridas southwestern coast. In 2005 the crocodiles nu

two years later the species was down listed to threaten.

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