VOL-10 Test 1 Passage 2 — IELTS Reading

<p><strong>A.</strong> The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a small carnivorous mammal, similar in length to a domestic cat, and is the only ferret species native to North America. For at least 100,000 years they lived in an area that extended almost uninterrupted from southern Canada to northern Mexico. 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.</p>

<p><strong>A.</strong> The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a small carnivorous mammal, similar in length to a domestic cat, and is the only ferret species native to North America. For at least 100,000 years they lived in an area that extended almost uninterrupted from southern Canada to northern Mexico. 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.</p>

<p><strong>B.</strong> 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.</p>

<p><strong>C.</strong> Ferrets probably evolved in Europe between three and four million years ago, and dispersed into North America across an ice-age land bridge at least two million years ago. They then advanced south-eastward to the Great Plains through ice-free passageways. The black-footed ferret’s history in North America is inextricably linked to the creature which became almost its sole prey — the prairie dog. These small rodents are a type of ground squirrel which live in networks of underground tunnels, known as burrows. The black-footed ferret’s short legs and long, slim body make it superbly adapted for life in the burrow systems of its prey.</p>

<p><strong>D.</strong> Spending virtually all their time underground, black-footed ferrets have always been elusive. Ferrets are never mentioned in accounts of the early explorers or pioneers who crossed the Great Plains by wagon train during the early to mid-1800s. They were, however, occasionally listed in records kept by fur companies in the upper Missouri River basin during that period. Black-footed ferrets were not officially recognized by scientists until 1851, when a description and drawing of one featured in a book by the renowned naturalist John James Audubon and Reverend John Bachman. For over two decades, no other specimens were seen, and scientists even began to question their existence. Then, in 1874, a Dr Elliott Coues issued a request for specimens through the popular magazine The American Sportsman, and was soon rewarded. With these he was able to add to Audubon’s description, and confirm the existence of the black-footed ferret.</p>

<p><strong>E.</strong> In the decades that followed, European settlement across North America changed the landscape dramatically, with vast areas being transformed into crop and grazing land. As agriculture and ranching expanded, the black-footed ferret’s main prey, the prairie dog, became a target for extermination, and was eventually eradicated from 98% of its original range. The result was devastating for black-footed ferret populations throughout the continent. Even today, the prairie dog is still trapped and poisoned, because ranchers believe that it competes with livestock for grass — a notion that belies recent research showing that prairie dogs and cattle feed on different plants.</p>

<p><strong>F.</strong> As late as the 1950s, black-footed ferrets were still thought to occur in low densities throughout most of their historic range. However, by the 1960s, the only known population was a small colony in south-western South Dakota. In 1967, the US Fish and Wildlife Service classified the black-footed ferret as an endangered species, and in 1974 the South Dakota colony disappeared. Finally, in January 1979, the last ferret in a captive-breeding programme died — making the black-footed ferret the first mammal to be declared extinct in the Northern Hemisphere in the 20th century.</p>