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PLAGUE, PRAIRIE DOGS - USA (MONTANA) Coconino prairie dogs killed by plague, flea tests confirm State ban on prairie dogs at issue Prairie dogs may burrow in Arizona AGFD NOT TO PURSUE REINTRODUCTION OF THE PRAIRIE DOGS INTO ARIZONA
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Laying
the groundwork for introducing the non indigenous prairie dog.
Today, a 9-inch-tall burrowing owl lives in a small cage on Tucson's far southeast side after having nursed a broken left wing for several months. Tomorrow morning, state biologists will place the bird into what an official calls its ``condominium'' - an artificial burrow on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. In three weeks, if all goes well, the State Game and Fish Department will remove an above-ground tent enclosure covering the artificial burrow and hope that the owl will still call the burrow home. This owl species is declining in numbers and listed as a species of concern in most western states, said William Mannan, a University of Arizona wildlife ecology professor who helped dig out the artificial burrow. The bird has no listing in Arizona because Game and Fish lacks enough information about its status, he said. Reasons for its decline: the loss of prairie dogs, which create the holes that many owls use, and the clearing of open land for farming and, probably, development, he said. For the past eight months, the owl has lived on one mouse a day inside a green cage at the home of Darlene Braastad, director of Forever Wild Animal Rehabilitation Center. Her organization picked up the broken-winged bird from Valley Animal Hospital, 4984 E. 22nd St. Someone - she doesn't know who - brought it there from the base. For three weeks, she kept it covered with a stretchy, elastic-like material to immobilize the wing. Today, the wing is essentially healed, although not perfect, she said. ``The owl is in excellent condition,'' she said. It will live on a roughly 30-acre area on the base's north end, south of Golf Links Road, east of Swan Road and west of Craycroft Road. Scrawny, scruffy native grasses cover the landscape. That is perfect for the burrowing owl, which prefers open grasslands to densely packed desert vegetation. The base and its grassland have long offered one of the Tucson area's best burrowing owl habitats. The artificial burrow consists of three parts. Underground lies a long, hand-dug burrow consisting of polyvinyl chloride pipe, about 6 inches in diameter. The pipe leads from the ground surface into a large, plastic bin similar to a laundry basket measuring about 2 by 3 feet . Above ground, a netted tent covers the burrow and keeps the owl from straying. ``If you put one in an enclosed area, they kind of adapt to the hole and use it,'' Mannan said. ``You're forcing them to stay in the area for a while. ``Afterward, they recognize it, see it and kind of adopt it. But there is no guarantee that they stay.'' He and another wildlife rehabilitator, Kathy Schroeder of the Catalina area, said the artificial burrow has been used before in other locations, including the Marana Air Park area. This is its first use on the base. A half-century ago, the base used this area for aircraft storage. Grasses poke through an old asphalt road on the property. Some D-M units still use the area for training in the driving of heavy equipment. D-M's open area has long been a burrowing owl colony, playing host to up to nine owls at a time. The entire base holds a large owl population, with birds nesting 50 to 100 yards apart. And the owl will create sort of an artificial balance of nature, by eating mice and other rodents that otherwise would draw larger raptors such as hawks and falcons.
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Prairie dogs may burrow in Arizona
By Steve Yozwiak Once abundant black-tailed prairie dogs, gone from Arizona since 1960 and quickly disappearing across the West, could be reintroduced here in an effort to save the little burrowers. Arizona Game and Fish Department officials are inviting the public to help them plan to bring the critters back to the state March 2 in Douglas, the heart of historical black-tailed prairie dog habitat in southeastern Arizona. The move to bring back the dogs follows a Thursday U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision that drew mixed reactions among environmentalists, ranchers and government biologists. The agency ruled that black-tailed prairie dogs are in severe decline and, from a scientific standpoint, should be protected as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, federal officials also ruled that they lack the money needed to grant those protections. There are so many other plants and animals in danger of extinction, they said, that the prairie dogs will have to wait. Peter Gober, a biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said black-tailed prairie dog numbers have dropped by half since 1980. The agency's budget for listing species as threatened or endangered has remained at $6 million annually since 1993. The number of petitions for adding species to the list has jumped to more than 200. States should immediately ban the poisoning and recreational hunting of prairie dogs, said Jonathan Proctor of the Predator Conservation Alliance in Montana. C.B. "Doc" Lane of the Arizona Cattlemen's Association said he is not concerned, as are some ranchers in other states, that the prairie dogs will compete for food or cause injury to cattle that step in their holes. Bill Van Pelt of Game and Fish said bringing the black-tails back to Arizona's grasslands could help prevent the critters' decline. Arizona has another species of prairie dog near the Grand Canyon called Gunnison's that is not endangered. Back to Top |
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The letter announced a meeting scheduled for March 2, 2000 in Douglas, AZ to develop a state management plan for the species.
Yesterday, I and others on the mailing list
received a letter dated February 7, 2000 from Terry B. Johnson,
Nongame Branch Chief. Subject - prairie dog conservation.
This letter announced that
the March 2 meeting has been cancelled.
This is a result of action take at the
public meeting of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission in Phoenix on
February 7. The Commission directed AGFD NOT
TO PURSUE REINTRODUCTION OF THE PRAIRIE DOGS INTO ARIZONA.
Further, the AGF Commission directed
the AGFD to present a full briefing on the Black tailed prairie dog
conservation agreement and the AGFD's 12 step process for
reestablishment of nongame wildlife and ESA in AZ at the AGFD
Commission's MARCH 17/18 meeting in Tucson.
We will need to pack the house
for the meeting. They should publish an agenda with a time
definite for this item. When I receive it, I will pass the info
on to you.
I found the following
information in a North Dakota newspaper when looking for something
else. We need to find out what is in the agreement.
After a 12-month biological review initiated by the National Wildlife Federation, Gober said states in the prairie dog's home range have already taken steps to manage these animals. Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma have developed and signed a conservation agreement that provides the general guidelines to implement a strategy for black-tailed prairie dog conservation and recovery, according to the USFWS. North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico didn't sign the agreement because of some of its details. Back to Top |
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State ban on prairie dogs at
issue
Ruling to halt reintroduction to be revisited Associated Press The black-tailed prairie dog is at the center of an Arizona controversy about their future. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Steve Yozwiak The Arizona Republic Feb. 13, 2000 Environmentalists are blasting the Arizona Game and Fish Commission for halting plans to bring back the black-tailed prairie dog to the wilds of southeastern Arizona. But the commission's decision may not be a done deal. Chairman Hays Gilstrap said the commission will reconsider the prairie dog ban when it meets in Tucson on March 17 and 18. Gilstrap, of Phoenix, along with Commissioner Mike Golightly of Flagstaff,opposed Monday's 3-2 decision to stop "any form" of planning that could result in bringing the black-tails back to Arizona, where they were exterminated from the wild by 1960. The move to stop the reintroduction study was made by Commissioner Dennis Manning of Alpine, and supported by Commissioners Joe Carter of Safford and Bill Berlat of Tucson. It came during a hastily called meeting at which no one from the public was present to object. The three also canceled a March 2 public meeting in Douglas, where the possibility of reintroducing the prairie dogs was expected to be discussed. The bane of farmers, ranchers and developers -- the critters tear up the grasslands and cattle are known to break their legs when they step into burrows -- prairie dogs in recent years have drawn the attention of environmentalists and wildlife officials because of a steep drop in population and habitat. Some wildlife specialists consider the mammals as the linchpin of a steadily disappearing type of prairie ecosystem, one that supports already rare or endangered species, such as black-footed ferrets, mountain plovers, badgers, antelopes and ferruginous hawks. Monday's meeting, called on the Friday before, was technically in compliance with a 24-hour public-notice requirement. However, Golightly questioned the practicality of the meeting, which the commissioners conducted via long-distance telephone conference call. Manning was adamant in his opposition to the reintroduction. "Let's get out of the prairie dog business. Just don't bring them into Arizona," he said. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the black-tailed prairie dog species is in such decline they should be listed as "threatened" on the federal Endangered Species List. Prairie dog numbers have declined by half since 1980. However, the agency also ruled that there are so many other plants and animals that need protection that the prairie dogs will have to wait for federal protection. Since 1993, Congress has virtually frozen the nationwide budget for endangered species listings at $6 million, while petitions for endangered species protections have soared into the hundreds. Federal wildlife officials said they are counting on the states to conserve the burrowing mammals, famous for creating prairie-dog towns. Federal officials and environmentalists had hoped that Arizona -- where the creatures were eliminated by poisoning, shooting and disease -- would be reintroduced to their historic grassland habitat. Another subspecies of prairie dog, the Gunnison's, exists in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon. It is not endangered. "Reintroduction (of black-tails) in Arizona would be the one immediate on-the-ground improvement that could be made," said Jonathan Proctor of the Predator Conservation Alliance in Montana. His group is seeking a West-wide ban on shooting and poisoning of prairie dogs, which face possible elimination through a form of plague. Catherine Johnson of the National Wildlife Federation in Washington said, "Arizona is placing an increased burden on the other states with black-tailed prairie dog populations, and jeopardizing the recovery of America's grasslands as a whole by failing to deal with this issue." Johnson said if the 11 Western states where prairie dogs historically live do not work to conserve the species, the federation could take legal action. Federal courts in recent years repeatedly have compelled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect species under the Endangered Species Act. Arizona Game and Fish Department officials want to avoid federal involvement, and reintroducing the prairie dog as planned could be one way to do that. Back to Top |
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Published: Thursday, February 10,
2000
Dog days Western states and landowners have been trying for decades to eradicate the black-tailed prairie dog, which they regard as an agricultural pest. Now, the federal government wants to protect the critters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- JEAN HAYS KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WICHITA, KAN. As Bob Bolen was out on the job trying to rid Wallace County of prairie dogs, federal biologists in Washington, D.C., last week, were announcing plans to save the animal from extinction. The black-tailed prairie dog -- a 3-pound, yipping, grass-eating rodent found in 10 states -- is rare enough that it deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act, they said. But biologists for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they won't list it as a threatened species just yet because a dozen plants and animals are in more danger, and the agency doesn't have the money to save them all. Instead, the service will give states a year or more to save the critter on their own and avoid showdowns over private property rights that sometimes accompany such listings. The announcement left Bolen wondering why the federal government would need to protect something landowners find so hard to get rid of. ``We've been at it 20 years, and we still haven't gotten the job done,'' said Bolen, Wallace County's noxious weed and prairie dog control officer. Wallace County and its taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars controlling prairie dogs. The population has declined drastically, he said, but only because of his constant vigilance. Such government-sponsored wars on prairie dogs, including poisonings and shootings, led the National Wildlife Federation to petition the federal government to save the prairie dog. The prairie dog is a so-called keystone species of the prairie, providing homes for the burrowing owl and swift fox, and food for eagles, said Steve Torbit, a senior scientist for the federation. ``If you like to see eagles, you have to have prairie dogs,'' he said. ``We have to get past the idea that just because they are rodents that they somehow don't deserve to be alive.'' Emotions over prairie dogs run hot. And they'll get a lot hotter in the months to come as rescue plans are drafted. The federal government received 15,000 letters about the proposal to list the species, with urban folks generally wanting to save them and rural folks wanting to eradicate them. The American Farm Bureau suggested that the name be changed to prairie rat so townsfolk wouldn't confuse them with poodles. ``You have to believe me, we were careful on this one,'' said Pete Gober, a biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service. ``We are quite aware that some folks see them as pests and some folks see them as the keystone species of the prairie.'' A century of disease, poisoning and shootings -- not to mention having their homes plowed up or paved over -- has taken its toll on the prairie dog, he said. The service fears they could be quickly wiped out. At the end of the 1800s, prairie dog towns covered about 2 million acres in Kansas. Now they live on about 50,000 acres, with an estimated state population of a half-million to a million. It took a lot of work to get those numbers down, ranchers say. ``Believe me, they will never run out of them, never,'' said Carolotta Brack, whose husband, Larry, has been shooting and fumigating them on their ranch near Leoti, Kan., with little success. ``They are the hardest thing to get rid of. They multiply so fast, they are like mice.'' The way she sees it, prairie dogs are an economic problem, stripping pastures of grass and competing with cattle for food. About 250 prairie dogs eat as much grass as one cow. They also attract rattlesnakes, she said, which share the underground tunnels. ``If you have prairie dogs, you have rattlesnakes,'' she said. ``I don't care for them all around my house, either.'' Saving the prairie dog in Kansas will require a ``change of attitude,'' said Keith Sexson, chief of the wildlife section of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Kansas has classified the black-tailed prairie dog as an ``agricultural pest'' since 1900, and some western counties, including Wallace, require landowners to eradicate prairie dogs. If a landowner refuses, the county will take care of the job and send the landowner the bill. Still, Kansas doesn't go to the extremes some states do. Texas hands out poison to landowners. Arizona managed to wipe out its entire population and is now faced with reintroducing them. Kansas does require a hunting license to shoot prairie dogs, but it places no limits on when they can be shot or the number a shooter can bag. The federal government hopes that all states will change their laws by August to restrict recreational shooting. Eight Plains states that are home to prairie dogs -- Kansas, Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming -- have agreed to come up with a plan by next year for monitoring and protecting the animal. Colorado, where the prairie dog is particularly controversial, and North Dakota are considering their own plans. Among the decisions: How many should a state have, and where will they live? Sexson will meet with farm groups, environmentalists and landowners to answer those questions. The federal government will review the states' progress annually and, if the number of prairie dogs continues to decline, will move to list it as a threatened species. ``This is a wake-up call to the states,'' Gober said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This report includes information from the Associated Press Back to Top |
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September 8, 2000 ProMED-mail http://www.promedmail.org Date: 6 Sep 2000 From: M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff@hotmail.com> Source: The Associated Press 6 Sep 2000 [edited] An outbreak of bubonic plague is turning prairie dog towns into ghost towns on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Since the presence of the bacteria that causes the plague [_Yersinia pestis_] was confirmed on the reservation and in southern Phillips County last fall, about 3 600 acres of healthy prairie dog towns have died off, and more are being decimated each month. Environmental officials suspect the area is on the verge of a plague epidemic similar to the one that annihilated prairie dogs on nearly 21,000 acres in Phillips County in the mid-1990s. The die-off is hurting endangered black-footed ferrets and rare mountain plovers. The ferrets, which are being reintroduced in Montana, feed on prairie dogs and live in their burrows. The plovers prefer to nest in the sparse vegetation provided by prairie dog towns. So far, the prairie dog towns infected in and near Phillips County are in very remote areas, miles from the nearest cities or tourist attractions. ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org> |
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Coconino prairie dogs killed by plague, flea tests confirm
Prairie dogs just weren't coming out of hibernation this spring. Cobwebs covered their burrow holes; flies buzzed around where they once scurried west of Flagstaff. Flea samples taken from empty prairie dog colonies in May and June proved what health officials had suspected - plague had killed them. A 30-by-20 mile region has already lost a large percentage - if not all - of the animals, said Paul Keim, a microbiology professor at Northern Arizona University who tests fleas for plague. "It's a pretty safe assumption that all the prairie dogs died of plague," he said. "If you like prairie dogs, it's a disaster out here." Though no animals have tested positive for plague this year, fleas show evidence of the disease reappearing from last summer, state health officials said. Prairie dogs usually die underground or are eaten by predators, making carcasses difficult to find and test. Arizona Department of Health Services and Coconino County health officials gathered fleas when residents in rural areas reported seeing fewer prairie dogs in the spring. In May, the Fork Valley area, northwest of Flagstaff, tested positive for the plague. Then in June, two other remote areas - Government Prairie near Antelope Hills and Bellmont - were also identified. Plague has been in Arizona since at least 1938, when the first animal case was reported. The first human case reported in the state was in 1950, according to the state health department. Plague is still active in about 15 states, mostly in the West, with Arizona ranking second behind New Mexico in plague cases, said Craig Levy, vector-borne disease program manager at the Arizona Department of Health Services.
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