With its rivers and waterfalls, lakes and wetlands, springs,
geysers, and caves, all rimmed with rocky seacoasts,
sandy beaches, corals, and deltas, North America's 5.8 billion acres
boast an amazing abundance
and diversity of wildlife and wild lands. Unfortunately, many of
them—like the black-footed ferret,
its prairie dog prey, and their grassland habitat—are highly endangered.
The National Zoo—the nation's zoo—exhibits many North American species.
Live the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone—play WolfQuest.
Endangered Black-footed Ferrets Give Birth
The National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center (CRC), in Front Royal, Virginia, has been breeding endangered black-footed ferrets for 20 years to bring them back from the brink of extinction. This year, 21 females were bred at CRC, four by artificial insemination and 17 by natural pairings.
So far, five ferrets have given birth to litters, including Georgia, the ferret featured on our 
web cam. She gave birth to a kit, resulting from artificial insemination, on June 20. Look for the newborn on the cam. It does not yet have the dark markings of its mother.
CRC staff were not sure which ferrets were pregnant. Ferrets are induced ovulators, which means they do not ovulate until they breed. When we artificially inseminate them, we give them a hormone injection the day before to induce ovulation. Ovulation usually results in a pregnancy or a pseudo (false) pregnancy. As with giant pandas, their hormone levels change as if they were pregnant, whether or not they are. Also, their appetite will increase, they will gain weight, and show other changes in behavior.
A black-footed ferret from CRC recently went on exhibit in the Small Mammal House.
Learn more about black-footed ferret conservation.
North America Photo Gallery |
Help with cam
Can’t see any animals?
The animal in this exhibit may have moved out of view. FONZ volunteers operate some cams, but most of our cams show a fixed view.
Watching black-footed ferrets:
You are viewing the nest box of a black-footed ferret at the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center, where ferrets are bred to be saved from extinction. This ferret gave birth to a kit on June 20. In 2007, 24 kits were born here and survived past infancy. Ferrets, which once ranged across the Great Plains and are now one of the world's rarest mammals, are more active at night—don't be surprised if the ferret on camera is asleep.
Recovery of the endangered black-footed ferret | 
Black-footed ferret facts
Flamingo Cam
Octopus Cam
Sea Lion Pups at the Zoo
Our youngest marine mammals are two female California sea lion pups that went on exhibit in Beaver Valley in 2006. They were rescued as newborns in June 2005 on separate beaches in California, and were raised at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California. 
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Two Prairie Dog Exhibits
Black-tailed prairie dogs, one of about 2,000 rodent species, can be seen in two Zoo exhibits. At the outdoor exhibit, near Lemur Island and the Mane Restaurant, several prairie dogs can be seen digging holes for their underground tunnel system, eating, and interacting.
The Small Mammal House is home to the second exhibit. A black-footed ferret normally lives in a nearby tunnel, but the Zoo currently does not have any ferrets.
Sam
and Tioga are the Stars of the Bald Eagle Refuge
A cooperative effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, and the National Zoo led to the creation of the Bald Eagle Refuge in the Zoo's Beaver Valley. Bald eagles in the lower 48 states nearly went extinct in the mid-20th century. In the 1960s and '70s, they were given protection under endangered species laws. Thanks to the ban on certain pesticides, protected habitats, and hand-rearing and releasing eagles into the wild, they now number more than 10,000 and are no longer considered endangered.
Come visit these majestic birds
in their open-air Zoo habitat and find out more about their incredible comeback after being
on the endangered species list. Saving
Our Symbol
