Black-footed ferret
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Once called the rarest mammal in North America, the black-footed ferret preys primarily on prairie dogs, and sometimes snacks on squirrels and rodents.
The species was declared extinct in 1979, but things seemed hopeful when a dog in Wyoming brought home a dead specimen two years later. In the nineties, the US Fish and Wildlife Service led programs to reintroduce captive-bred individuals to their native habitats, but current populations are still small. Today there are fewer than 206 mature individuals living in the wild, according to the IUCN.
