How the black-footed ferret is making a comeback from the brink of extinction

John Yang (voice-over):

Another threat to the black-footed ferret, a bacterial disease called sylvatic plague both black-footed ferrets and the prairie dogs they eat are highly susceptible to it. It's transmitted by fleas and has been known to infect humans.

Black-footed ferrets are nocturnal spending daylight hours in burrows dug by prairie dogs their lives there have largely been a mystery to scientists. But this summer field biologist in Montana began the first ever tests of electronic devices to track prairie dogs under round into such a mess they're like Fitbits mapping their movement providing researchers with a wealth of data they hope will give them a better understanding of how the two species shared the networks of tunnels called towns.

Hila Shamon, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute: For the first time, we'll be able to map that and know how deep it is. What are the densities of the animals? What is the space that one black-footed ferrets is actually using out of that town? Then what is the overlap between those ferrets, so we can know what would be a carrying capacity of a given prairie dog town.

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