Young Black-Footed Ferret (IMAGE) Smithsonian Caption A two-week-old black-footed ferret is pictured in its nesting box at the National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. on July 3, 2008. The kit was born on June 21 to a two-year-old mother and a father who had died in 2000. National Zoo reproductive scientists inseminated the female with frozen black-footed ferret semen stored in their genome resource bank -- a frozen repository of sperm and eggs of a variety of endangered species. Credit Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian’s National Zoo Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.