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View Full Version : Black-footed ferret attacking praire dog



D. Robert Franz
01-03-2008, 06:37 PM
A number of years ago while on assignment for the Wildlife Conservation Society I had a chance to work with F & W Biologists on BF Ferret reintroduction. Here a dream came true and I became the only person in the world to photograph wild ferret predating a prairie dog. The battle was amazing. I managed to shoot about 3 rolls of film..The light was low so I lost a lot of images to subject motion.

Canon Eos1d, EF300mmF2.8L, 1.4x, Provia 100 pushed to ISO 200

DanWalters
01-03-2008, 06:39 PM
Great action. The blood on the prairie dogs feet really adds to the dramatic impact.

Judd Patterson
01-04-2008, 07:50 AM
Amazing action! Truly an honor to even see a Black-footed Ferret, much less to capture such a rare event. I'm surprised that you were able to get away with using a 300mm and 1.4x for this shot. Just a few weeks ago, 24 ferrets were released on private land in my home state of Kansas. I hope that eventually I can create some images of these spectacular predators.

Pete Woods
01-04-2008, 08:21 AM
This is a great capture, talk about right place right time....

Are you sure they are fighting... Looks to me as though the ferret is blowing on the prairie dogs tumtum (much like a mother would a baby to make it chuckle) OK OK I know mad ;)

What was the outcome.. Ferret 1 Prairie Dog 0

IvoZafirov
01-04-2008, 10:03 AM
Fantastic!!!!

Jasper Doest
01-05-2008, 06:21 AM
Such nice interaction captured Robert....and a nice composition as well. My biggest concern about this image would be the spot of soil on the lower left corner which is a bit too dominant in frame for my taste. Perhaps you could also crop a tiny bit of the left side to put the focus more on the animals.

Bob Boner
01-05-2008, 09:07 AM
Great capture! Being able to see the ferrets eye really makes this image. Thanks for sharing.

D. Robert Franz
01-05-2008, 09:42 AM
Such nice interaction captured Robert....and a nice composition as well. My biggest concern about this image would be the spot of soil on the lower left corner which is a bit too dominant in frame for my taste. Perhaps you could also crop a tiny bit of the left side to put the focus more on the animals.


The soil is actually dirt flying from the speed of the action which was incredible. It was the most fearsome, graphic, brutal battle you would ever want to witness. This image is rather tame compared to many of the images from the series. National Geographic was to run a feature on this but some of the editors felt it to be to graphic... Instead they just used a few of the puff images..