Top 10 Rarest Animals In The World

10) Black-footed Ferret: The Black-footed Ferret is often touted as a conservation success story as the species has come back from extinction status twice through the efforts of conservationists. Originally, the Black-footed Ferret was native to the Great Plains of North America and ranged from southern Canada to northern Mexico. However, the population of the Black-footed Ferret sharply declined throughout the 20th century and was declared extinct in 1979. A few years later, in 1981, the Black-footed Ferret was re-discovered by a dog in Wyoming. That remaining population only survived until 1987 and the Black-footed Ferret was extinct in the wild again. Since then, a captive breeding program was launched by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and thousands of Black-footed Ferrets were re-released in Arizona, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana throughout the last few decades. While, the program has mostly been a success, recent updates only put the wild Black-footed Ferret population between 300 to 400 individuals.