Park's black-footed ferret population gets boost

Grasslands National Park in southwest Saskatchewan is gaining 15 black-footed ferrets as Parks Canada sends the group into the wild.

Parks Minister Peter Kent says it's the third release of the at-risk species into the national park.

Once considered a rarity, the black-footed ferrets were reintroduced in 2009.

Since then, they have been closely monitored closely.

This year, three new ferret families were spotted by trackers on separate prairie dog colonies.

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  This undated handout photo provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department shows two juvenile black-footed ferrets periscoping from a white-tailed prairie dog burrow in Shirley Basin, Wyoming. (AP Photo/Wyoming Game and Fish Department, LuRay Parker)