1. Amanda Heyn, Laura Icenhour, & Evan Fitch The Black-Footed Ferret

2. Background Black-Footed Ferrets are members of the weasel family (Mustelidae) Ferrets are nocturnal and do most hunting at night http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/ StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/black-footed-ferret.jpg

3. Background Cont’d The Black-Footed Ferret prey on prairie dogs and lives in their burrows Ferrets were thought to be extinct A population of ferrets was found in 1981 http://www.nps.gov/wica/naturescience/images/Prairie-Dogs.jpg

4. Survival Factors Cancer carried on recessive allele Susceptibility to Canine distemper – A contagious, incurable, often fatal, multisystemic viral disease affecting the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems in mammals. – Canine distemper is fatal for ferrets 100% of the time. – First introduced to ferret population in 1981

5. Geographical Location Ferrets were once found throughout the Great Plains, from Texas to southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Since 1985, efforts have been made to breed the ferrets in captivity and then reintroduce them into the wild. http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/ferret.asp

6. Bottleneck Effect Bottleneck effect refers to the reduction of a population’s gene pool and the accompanying changes in gene frequency produced when a few members survive the widespread elimination of a species. The black footed ferrets underwent a bottleneck effect resulting in the last wild population site of ferrets to be discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming 1981. About 25% of the original 19 founders’ genes have made it into the current population.

7. If canine distemper had been allowed to continue in the population in Wyoming… Would the prevalent genotypes reverse? Would the dangerous recessive allele lead to an increased number of ferret death?

8. Vensim Model

9. 1 0.5 0 0246810 Time (Month) Homozygous Dominant : Current Heterozygous : Current Homozygous Recessive : Current Total Pop : Current Genotypes

10. Vensim Key Homozygous Dominant=Blue – As time increases dominant allele decreases Homozygous Recessive=Green – As time increases dangerous recessive allele levels off Heterozygous=Red – As time increases heterozygous allele remains unaffected

11. Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium p² + 2pq + q² = 1 p + q =1 p 2 =.33 Total Population=180 p=.57 HD=42 q=.43 HR=59 q 2 =.18 H=79 2pq=.49

12. Hardy-Weinberg Graph X axis=P Y axis=Q As P increases Q decreases P=.57 Q=.43

14. Pictures http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/08/10/black_footedferret1_wideweb__470x314,0.jpg http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/images/black_footed_ferrets.jpg http://www.pc.gc.ca/nature/eep-sar/itm3-/images/MikeLockhart2-.jpg http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2007/05/14/526310/BlackFootedFerrets04Web.jpg

15. Resources Averting Extinction, Tim W. Clark Prairie Night; Brian Miller, Richard P. Reading, and Steve Forrest http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habita t/wildlife/black-footed_ferret.php www.animalhealthgeneral.com