Amanda%20Heyn,%20Laura%20Icenhour,%20

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The Black-Footed Ferret

• Amanda Heyn, Laura Icenhour, Evan Fitch

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Background

• Black-Footed Ferrets are members of the weasel
  family (Mustelidae)
• Ferrets are nocturnal and do most hunting at
  night

http//animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/
NGS/Shared/ StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/bla
ck-footed-ferret.jpg
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Background Contd

• The Black-Footed Ferret prey on prairie dogs and
  lives in their burrows
• Ferrets were thought
• to be extinct
• A population of ferrets was found in 1981

http//www.nps.gov/wica/naturescience/images/Prair
ie-Dogs.jpg
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Survival Factors

• Cancer carried on recessive allele
• Susceptibility to Canine distemper
• A contagious, incurable, often fatal,
  multisystemic viral disease affecting the
  respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central
  nervous systems in mammals.
• Canine distemper is fatal for ferrets 100 of the
  time.
• First introduced to ferret population in 1981

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Geographical Location

• Ferrets were once found throughout the Great
  Plains, from Texas to southern Saskatchewan,
  Canada.
• Since 1985, efforts have been made to breed the
  ferrets in captivity and then reintroduce them
  into the wild.

http//www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/ferret.asp
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Bottleneck Effect

• Bottleneck effect refers to the reduction of a
  populations gene pool and the accompanying
  changes in gene frequency produced when a few
  members survive the widespread elimination of a
  species.
• The black footed ferrets underwent a bottleneck
  effect resulting in the last wild population site
  of ferrets to be discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming
  1981.
• About 25 of the original 19 founders genes have
  made it into the current population.

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If canine distemper had been allowed to continue
in the population in Wyoming

• Would the prevalent genotypes reverse?
• Would the dangerous recessive allele lead to an
  increased number of ferret death?

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Vensim Model
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Genotypes
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Vensim Key

• Homozygous DominantBlue
• As time increases dominant allele decreases
• Homozygous RecessiveGreen
• As time increases dangerous recessive allele
  levels off
• HeterozygousRed
• As time increases heterozygous allele remains
  unaffected

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Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

• p²  2pq  q²  1
• p q 1
• p2 .33 Total Population180
• p.57 HD42
• q.43 HR59
• q2 .18 H79
• 2pq.49

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Hardy-Weinberg Graph

• X axisP
• Y axisQ
• As P increases Q decreases
• P.57
• Q.43

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Pictures
http//www.pc.gc.ca/nature/eep-sar/itm3-/images/Mi
keLockhart2-.jpg
http//www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/images/black_foo
ted_ferrets.jpg
http//www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/08/10/black_fo
otedferret1_wideweb__470x314,0.jpg
http//ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2007/05/14/526310/Bla
ckFootedFerrets04Web.jpg
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Resources

• Averting Extinction, Tim W. Clark
• Prairie Night Brian Miller, Richard P. Reading,
  and Steve Forrest
• http//www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wild
  life/black-footed_ferret.php
• www.animalhealthgeneral.com