Baby Sea Turtles Rescued From the Gulf Oil Spill, Relocated to Florida's Space Coast

Reprinted with permission:

Have Prairie Dog, Will Travel

The Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming is the site of a new recovery habitat for North America’s most endangered mammal, the Black-Footed Ferret. But before any ferrets can be introduced, conservationists need to ensure that the eco-system will support them. To do that, the U.S. Forest Service began relocating black-tailed prairie dogs to the area in July and continuing through August.

The black-tailed prairie dogs have long been considered pests to ranchers, making them the target of mass poisonings and sport shooting. Consequently, prairie dog populations plummeted which in turn caused a decline in species that eat them, especially the black-footed ferret.

So now a team of federal agencies and conservation organizations including the U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance are relocating prairie dogs from two sites considered too close to private land to the Thunder Basin National Grassland area. This prairie dog relocation effort is the first of its kind on U.S. Forest Service land, and Forest Service agents hope to reintroduce the black-footed ferrets as soon as 2011.