Six Black-footed Ferret Kits Born at the Phoenix Zoo!

The Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo are thrilled to announce our first litter of black-footed ferret kits for the year! Six healthy ferret kits are being cared for by their mother, Mandolin, a first-time mom. The Phoenix Zoo is one of only six black-footed ferret breeding facilities in the world, and we are active participants in the AZA Black-footed Ferret Species Survival Plan® program, which recommended the pairing that led to these kits. The kits will be raised by Mandolin at the Zoo’s Arthur L. and Elaine V. Johnson Conservation Center for the next few months. In the fall, the SSP will determine which kits will stay at one of the six breeding facilities for future breeding and which will be released to one of several release sites in the wild. These decisions are based on a close examination of the genetics of the population in human care and population trends at each of the release sites.