First, I would like to say that I am in the process of moving and filling out various and sundry paperwork.
Second, the process of filling out various and sundry paperwork FILLS ME WITH RAGE. RAGE that only the Mustelidae family can calm. But honestly though, if you want a thing turned in for verification on one day and that’s four weeks before the listed deadline, WHY WOULDN’T YOU MAKE THOSE DATES THE SAME.
Ahem, anyway…Mustelidae!
Mustelidae include martens, skunks, otters, wolverines, badgers, and other more or less weasel-y things. They’re a carnivorous family and regardless of the fame of other carnivores like canids and big cats, boast twice the species of any other family of carnivores. Cute AND numerous. Except for wolverines, those are CRANKY. More impressively though, is the fact that mustelids are flipping EVERYWHERE. Land, sea air, you name it! Except for air, that was a lie. But forests, lakes, desert, burrowing, swimming, arboreal, anywhere and on anything unless that something is Antarctica or Australia. Weasel No-Man’s Land right there. Doesn’t mean they’re any easier to find (the tricky bastards), but you at least know that anywhere else, there are Mustelida somewhere.
Since UNDYING RAGE and my need for sustenance call me now, over the next couple days I will cover some very important and/or famous mustelids: black-footed ferrets and sea otters.
Source
Cogger, Harold G., Joseph Forshaw, Edwin Gould, George McKay and Richard G. Zweifel. 2002. “Marsupials”. Encyclopedia of Animals. Barnes and Noble Books, New York.
Photo Credit: M. Lockhart/USFWS
Daily Science (blog) 
I was going to ask, “What about the black-footed ferret?” and then you mentioned them! Here’s an article about black-footed ferrets (and prairie dogs — apparently the ferrets find them yummy) from La Junta that was published last week: http://www.lajuntatribunedemocrat.com/article/20130726/NEWS/130729959
Well, the bf-ferrets find prairie dogs yummy, but it sounds like most of the ranchers don’t like the prairie dogs.
Thanks for the link! That covers a different side of the issue that hadn’t occurred to me. I would have thought farmers would jump on the reintroduction of a prairie dog predator, but I never knew how many of the things the ferrets needed!