RUSSELL SPRINGS -- Reinforcements arrived in the grasslands of southwest Logan County on Wednesday evening, providing a once-in-a-lifetime show for most of the 20 people on hand.

But rather than scurry away, the black-footed ferrets scampered about, providing a display that hasn't been seen in Kansas for decades.

Another 19 ferrets -- the nation's most endangered mammal -- were released at three sites in Logan County Wednesday, where a reintroduction project has been under way since December when the first round of animals was released.

Twelve of the animals were released on a 10,000-acre complex owned and operated by Gordon and Martha Barnhardt and Larry and Bette Haverfield. The seven remaining animals were taken to the Nature Conservancy's Smoky Valley Ranch for release.

"I asked for 50 but I knew we wouldn't get it," said Dan Mulhearn, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Manhattan.

While only 19 came along Wednesday, Pete Gober, coordinator of the FWS ferret reintroduction program, said he hopes to bring another 20 down to the reintroduction sites in a couple weeks.

A string of vehicles followed the process, with the first ferret less than willing to leave the pet carrier she was housed in for the trip from Colorado to Kansas.

She was even less enthusiastic about staying down in the prairie dog hole where she had been released, instead looking about and running around.

Ferrets are naturally curious, and the animals released were raised in captivity, but conditioned for release in the wild, Gober said.

While the ferret bounded about, much to the delight of the host of people armed with cameras and video recorders, it was a bit of concern for Mulhearn.

"That's that cantankerous female," he said as he watched a line of people photographing a ferret as she bounded about from burrow to burrow. "She needs to get back underground."

"They want to pose for you," Gober quipped as a ferrets scurried about.

Looking straight at the animal, he said, "I worry if you guys can live in the country with coyotes."

While ferrets feed almost exclusively on prairie dogs, they are at risk of predation themselves from coyotes, hawks and owls.

The Kansas release sites, Gober said, are critically important to the ferret reintroduction program, in part because it is the only place where ferrets are being released on private land.

During the release Wednesday, Mulhearn sought to space the ferrets out, well away from sites where the animals were released in December, or where ferret kits were found in a survey in late summer.

"I don't want to put them on top of litters," he said. "I want to give them as much breathing room as we can. I don't know it's a big deal or not."

"They've got 10,000 acres here," said Kansas Audubon executive director Ron Klataske, "they can spread out."

Steven Sorensen, representing the Kansas Wildlife Federation, made the trip from Valley Center. He said he came because he had complained about the shroud of secrecy surrounding the December release.

"When you get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this, you've got to take it," he said.

It was especially special for him, as his granddaughter was on hand. She knew all about ferrets, Sorensen said.

"And prairie dogs," little 4-year-old Alexis Sanchez piped in. She had just arrived in Kansas this week to celebrate her birthday on Sunday.

His granddaughter was one of the reasons Sorensen attended, because many conservation people work for the benefit of their children and grandchildren.

"It was a self-satisfying event for a lot of reasons," he said.

For Larry Haverfield, who has been at the center of the controversy surrounding the reintroduction effort, it was a moment to savor.

"I guess, when people are talking about giving something back, I guess that's what we're doing."