Hodgepodge 314/365 - Mustelids

Driving home from a hike this morning, I was listening to a discussion about black-footed ferret (Mustella nigripes) recovery efforts on Science Friday with Ira Flatow. In 1981, there were only 18 black-footed ferrets remaining in the wild. Indeed, it was thought they were extinct, until a Wyoming rancher's dog Shep brought one home—dead, but as it turned out, there were more where that one came from. Living in prairie dog burrows. That's what they do: they are specialists, and have coevolved, since crossing the Bering Land Bridge 20,000 years ago, to live with and dine on prairie dogs. Which is a problem, for obvious reasons—chief among them being, ranchers hate prairie dogs and want to be rid of them. Another big problem is that the plague has spread into their habitat, though scientists are finding a way to battle that, slowly but, hopefully, surely. The story of their recovery—black-footed ferrets now number about 800, if I heard correctly, across nine of the twelve states that are their (and prairie dogs') original range—is very interesting. You can find it here, if you'd like to read more about it or listen to the segment on your own.

But that got me thinking about mustelids: their family. Ferrets are a relative of the weasel, of course. Also of badgers, otters, martens, mink, and wolverines. They are characterized by short legs, short, round ears, and thick fur. (Sea otters have up to a million hairs per square inch.) Some of them are also fierce as fierce as can be. If you haven't seen this video about the crazy nastyass African honey badger (Mellivora capensis), take a look. It's funny, but more to the point, this is what a mustelid can be.

Here in Monterey, we've had our own recovery battle: the California sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis), which numbered some 16,000 until Russian fur hunters wiped them out in the 1800s. By the early 20th century they, too, were thought to be extinct, but then a small colony of some fifty animals was discovered in an isolated cove near Bixby Creek in Monterey County. Since then, recovery efforts have brought the population to 3,000 or so individuals, with their range expanding to include San Mateo and Santa Barbara counties.

I expect other mustelids have had their own battles, and perhaps there are other recovery efforts going on worldwide.

There are 56 living species, traditionally divided into two subfamilies: the otters (Lutrinae) and the rest (Mustelinae). More recently, that breakdown has been fine-tuned. Here's a graphic:

However you categorize them, these are really awesome animals, and I'm glad the black-footed ferret and the otter are getting help to survive. We owe it to them.