This report is a collection of published papers from the Symposium on the Status of the Black-footed Ferret and Its Habitat, held January 28–29, 2004, in Fort Collins, Colorado. It had been more than 10 years since the previous symposium, and much new information on the biology of the black-footed ferret had been accumulated. Many of the papers published here resulted from information collected as captive breeding became more efficient and as black-footed ferrets were released back into native habitats. The symposium was organized into sections based on the principal topics in the stepdown outline of the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Plan (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1988). The relationship between the recovery plan and the papers of this symposium illustrates that work is following a somewhat orderly progression guided by principal topics in the recovery plan. A brief description of that relationship introduces each section of this volume. This volume and the five that preceded it, including proceedings from the three workshops and the symposium, plus the Great Basin Naturalist volume (Wood, 1986), cover a broad spectrum of work on prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets. Although these volumes certainly are not exhaustive in their coverage of ferret and prairie dog research and conservation activities, they collectively provide a solid foundation for future conservationists working with ferrets and chronicle a long-term recovery program for one of North America’s most endangered vertebrates.
