Prairie Dog Pals

Dedicated to the Preservation of Prairie Dogs and their Habitat

Research Update: Preventing Predation of Endangered Black-footed Ferrets

by

Black-footed ferrets are one of the most endangered mammals in the world and their recovery efforts include ferret-and-fence_originala multi-agency captive breeding and reintroduction program. From 1991 to 2010, more than 3,000 captive-reared ferrets were reintroduced at 19 sites across North America. The captive-breeding program has successfully saved ferrets from extinction, but maintaining the captive population and producing kits for reintroduction is expensive. Furthermore, survival rates of captive-reared ferrets are lower than those of wild-born kits.

In an effort to help boost the survival of wild-born black-footed ferrets, scientists with the USDA-APHIS National Wildlife Research Center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of Montana recently tested the effectiveness and feasibility of electric fencing to protect young ferrets from coyote predation at the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge in Montana.

Researchers fenced portions of two prairie dog colonies within the wildlife refuge in order to exclude coyotes from areas inhabited by adult female ferrets and their litters. Results showed the electric fencing was an effective tool for reducing coyote activity in the study area and researchers observed a 22 percent higher survival rate for ferret kits living in protected areas versus unprotected areas. However, the fencing was not perfect and coyotes were found inside the fenced area on three occasions.

The cost for the fencing and its installation were approximately $7,200 per mile. Maintenance and monitoring costs for 2 months were an additional $1,025 per mile. Based on these numbers, researchers estimate that a 20–30 percent increase in the survival rate of wild-born kits would cost around $4,500 per ferret kit over 10 years. That cost drops to around $2,100 per ferret kit, if monitoring is done using volunteers and donated or borrowed vehicles. This study provides decisionmakers with valuable information for comparing the costs of breeding ferrets in captivity versus improving the survival of existing wild-born ferrets.

Read more:  Ferrets

Government’s War on Wildlife Called Out by Two Congressmen

by

The hot seat just got hotter for the rogue agency that’s responsible for the cruel and indiscriminate killing of millions of animals every year in the U.S., following a request for an investigation and congressional review made by two senators.3067147.large

Wildlife Services (WS) began as Animal Damage Control, which started out killing pests and added predators to its list of targets in 1914. The agency has since expanded its services and has continued killing hundreds of thousands of native animals every year under the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

The Brutal Sport of Prairie Dog Hunting

by

The other day I was reading up on passenger pigeons and the 19th-century slaughter that rushed a population of billions of birds into extinction over a matter of decades. It reminded me that the same sort of mindless killing happens in the United States even now. It made me think in particular of an afternoon I spent years ago near Rapid City, S.D., with a group of shooters who sometimes jokingly referred to themselves as “the red mist society,” because that’s what a prairie dog turns into on impact with one of their high-powered bullets.dogamgood2

Read more at: Senseless “Sport”

 

Lobos Need You in ABQ November 20!

by

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to strip gray wolves’ endangered species protections and make other changes that threaten the survival and recovery of Mexican gray wolves.

Fifteen years after they were reintroduced, only 75 Mexican gray wolves remain in the wild, and they have undergone dangerous genetic deterioration due to government and private shooting and trapping, along with a freeze on wolf releases to the wild. AnnaUpClose1_Regina Mossotti-EWC

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) now proposes changes to Mexican wolf management —two good changes and many more that will worsen the lobo’s already-tenuous plight.

The FWS will hold a public hearing on its proposal on Wednesday, November 20 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They must listen to all those speaking up for and against the lobo.

 

Read more at:  Lobos