The Return of the Black-footed Ferret

But numbers fell dramatically throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, to such an extent that the black-footed ferret was declared 'possibly extinct'. Then, almost miraculously, it returned from the dead. B Within the genus Mustela, the ferret belongs to the subgenus Putorius, of which there are only three extant species: the European polecat; the Siberian polecat; and the black-footed ferret. The European polecat lives in open forests and meadows, and is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic ferret. The Siberian polecat looks more similar to the black-footed ferret, and leads a similar life on open grasslands and semidesert regions across Russia, China and Siberia.