They're adorable, fuzzy, black-footed, and now, they have names: Aster, Aspen, and Swifty.
The three baby ferrets, also known as kits, were born in May to their 3-year-old mother Potpie and their 1-year-old father Daly at the Smithsonian's Conversation Biology Institute in Front Royal. They received their names after 6,700 votes were cast last week by ferret lovers. Nine names — based off of their American prairie habitat — were selected by the biology facility's researchers, and then voters had the final say.
Aster, a female kit, is named after a purple flower that's native to the prairie. Aspen, Aster's brother, is named after quaking aspen, another plant native to the prairie. And then there's Swifty, the second brother, who is named after the prairie's swift fox.
Article continues belowWhile you can't go see these little ones at the Smithsonian Zoo, you can check them out on a webcam the institute set up.
Black-footed ferrets are carnivorous creatures were thought to be extinct in North America until September 1981, when a small colony was discovered in Wyoming. At least 18 of those ferrets were put under the care of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
Then in 1988, the Smithsonian Institute received the offspring and bred black-footed ferrets for the first time outside of Wyoming. More than a thousand ferrets have been born at the institute. At least 350 kits born at the institute have gone into a preconditioning program for a chance to be released back into the wild.
At 4 months old the kits will be separated from their mom, and experts will assess whether they remain at the institute, go into the preconditioning program, or get transferred to another breeding program.
This story is from DCist.com, the local news website of WAMU.
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