Some were sent to a branch of the National Zoological Park near Washington, D.C., and others were sent to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. The rest stayed at Sybille. The captive breeding program has expanded since then to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Phoenix Zoo in Phoenix, Arizona, the Louisville Zoological Garden in Louisville, Kentucky, the Metropolitan Zoo in Toronto, Canada. Today, the zoos remain active in the black-footed ferret's captive breeding program. More than a year ago, budget forced the Game and Fish Department to step out of the lead in the black-footed ferret captive breeding effort.
Captive breeding continues.
More than 170 survived. More than 225 survived. More than 220 ferrets were reintroduced in Shirley Basin from 1991-94. But in 1995, a disease called Sylvatic Plague caused a 60 percent decline in Shirley Basin's white-tailed prairie dog population. And in 1995, an outbreak of another disease called canine distemper hit Shirley Basin.