Homeowner finds ‘rarest mammal in North America’ in garage, Colorado officials say

A homeowner found an animal scurrying through his garage and trapped it under a box.

It was actually the “rarest mammal in North America,” Colorado officials said.

“CPW received a call from a nearby homeowner that a ferret was in his garage,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a Nov. 10 news release. “By the time CPW Officers Cassidy English and Travis Sauder arrived, the homeowner had coaxed the ferret into a box.”

The homeowner found an endangered and rare black-footed ferret Nov. 8 in his Pueblo West home, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.

For years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been part of a conservation effort to protect the mammal. More than 120 black-footed ferrets have been released since 2013 on Walker Ranch, a sprawling landscape near the homeowner’s property.

Biologists monitor the animals and give the ferrets plague vaccines to help restore the population, according to Parks and Wildlife. Each ferret released has a microchip that can be scanned.

After wildlife officials arrived at the homeowner’s garage and realized they were holding a black-footed ferret, they contacted a nearby humane society to help identify the animal.

Officers also sent photos of the ferret to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, who determined the animal was healthy and should be re-released in the colony.

The ferret was released and scurried back into the burrow, wildlife officials said.

“This is extremely rare,” Ed Schmal, a conservation biologist, said in the news release. “Black-footed ferrets are nocturnal and extremely shy. For some reason, this one left the colony and was seeking shelter. We’re just glad it appeared healthy, not starving or sick, and we were able to capture it and return it to the colony.”

There are about 370 black-footed ferrets in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They weigh about 2 pounds and can be between 18 and 24 inches long.

The ferrets were once thought to be extinct.

Pueblo West is about 112 miles south of Denver.

This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Homeowner finds ‘rarest mammal in North America’ in garage, Colorado officials say."