WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Fish and Wildlife Service Agrees: Prairie Dog May Warrant Federal Protection

WildEarth Guardians' Petition Results in Positive Finding
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

DENVER - Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded to WildEarth Guardians’ August 2007 petition to list the black-tailed prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), finding that the petition presented sufficient information demonstrating that the black-tailed prairie dog may deserve federal protection as Threatened or Endangered under the ESA. Co-petitioners included the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, the Center for Native Ecosystems, and Rocky Mountain Animal Defense.

The Service’s positive finding means the agency will conduct a full review of whether the black-tailed prairie dog should be listed under the ESA. The Service found that threats to the species include poisoning, plague, and insufficient government protection.

“We commend the Fish and Wildlife Service for taking this positive step toward listing the black-tailed prairie dog,” stated Lauren McCain, Desert and Grassland Projects Director for WildEarth Guardians. “Endangered Species Act protection is likely the only way to prevent the animal’s extinction.”

The black-tailed prairie dog population once numbered in the billions and ranged across 11 U.S. states and portions of Mexico and Canada in the Great Plains and the Southwest. The animals disappeared from up to 99% of their historic range in the last 150 years. Their state of imperilment with no federal protection takes on heightened significance given the unique importance of prairie dogs and their colonies to other wildlife.

Plowing up native grasslands for agriculture, particularly in the eastern portions of the species’ range, resulted in the permanent loss of approximately 40% of the rodent’s original habitat. Government-sponsored eradication programs starting in the early 1900s killed off most remaining prairie dogs, under a faulty assumption that prairie dogs out-compete domestic livestock for forage. Despite numerous scientific studies that largely contradict this assumption, the livestock industry still considers prairie dogs pests that should be poisoned.

“Big agriculture has put tremendous pressure on the Fish and Wildlife Service to not list the black-tailed prairie dog,” added McCain. “Now, the agency must put science over politics and follow through with listing.”

The last remaining black-tailed prairie dog colonies are much smaller, more isolated, and highly fragmented than historically. Habitat loss and degradation from agriculture, oil and gas extraction, urbanization and suburbanization, continued poisoning, and increased recreational shooting have made prairie dogs more vulnerable to the devastating threat of sylvatic plague.

Plague, an exotic disease originating in Asia, is lethal to prairie dogs and can quickly wipe out up to 100% of a colony’s residents. Despite considerable research, scientists seem far from developing a reliable vaccine or other treatments that would stem prairie dog losses from plague.

“Listing would give prairie dogs a break from human-caused threats now preventing recovery,” stated McCain. “This may buy them some time while researchers figure out how to control plague.”

Of the five prairie dog species, the black-tailed prairie dog has the largest range spanning the short- and mid-grass prairie areas of the Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert. The historic range covers parts of 11 western states: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming as well as southern Saskatchewan, Canada and northern Mexico.

Federal Register notice

View photo 1. (Photo by Richard Reading)

View photo 2. (Photo by Richard Reading)

View photo 3. (Photo by Richard Reading)

Range map