How does a ferret protect itself in the wild?

The black footed ferret protects itself by spending most of the time underground in its home or prairie dog burrows and usually only comes out at night.

The black-footed ferret is very secretive and is nocturnal, so that few people have ever seen them in the wild. Most of its time is below ground in prairie dog burrows, and usually spends only a few minutes above ground each day for hunting or finding new burrows or mates. In burrows it sleeps, stores its food, avoids predators and harsh weather, and takes care of it's young. Their worst enemy is man, and they are losing that battle. As we plow more lands and kill prairie dogs, the ferrets begin to die because we cut off their main food source. The black footed ferret is making a comeback now because of captive breeding programs, several colonies are roaming the plains again.