The third Friday of each May is Endangered Species Day, a day to learn more about protecting threatened and endangered species. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, an extraordinary piece of legislation that showed our commitment as a nation to the conservation of the creatures we share this planet with and has saved many, including this one.
This picture, taken back in 2017 and not shared until today, was the first time I photographed a black-footed ferret. To say I was excited would be, well, a huge understatement.
These little creatures were, in fact, declared extinct in 1979 but two years later, a small population was found in Wyoming. They were captured and since then, conservation and captive breeding programs run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have allowed small populations of the black-footed ferret to return to the wild. It is heartening to see such dedicated efforts being taken to right a wrong.
