Posted on 10/25/2017 2:46:04 PM PDT by SandRat
SONOITA – In the shadow of the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains, Kurt Licence, a birds and mammals biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, reached his hands into a metal cage and firmly grabbed ahold of a black-tailed prairie dog in front of a small yet electrified crowd.
“Welcome home,” he said, as he carried the animal to another enclosure and prepared to push it down a plastic tube leading to its new home. “You ready?”
The animal was the first of 94 black-tailed prairie dogs released in the Sands Ranch area east of Sonoita on Oct. 13 in the hope that they will help revive the native prairie dog population, which was last documented in Arizona in the 1960s.
AZGFD has been working to reestablish black-tailed prairie dogs in the region since 2008, when biologists first translocated the animals to the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. This release on a ranch a few miles to the east of Las Cienegas was the first since 2010 and the first done outside the conservation area, said AZGFD spokesman Mark Hart.
Prior to the first release, Licence addressed the roughly 20 people in attendance, mostly comprised of biologists and staff with AZGFD and Pima County, who looked on excitedly as he explained the relocation process.
“(It’s a) really big day for us, big day for these guys and a big day for black-tailed prairie dogs in Arizona,” Licence said. “What I’m going to do is reach in, they’re going to squirm a lot, they really don’t like to be held. There may be some biting involved, but you guys will get a good view of that and hopefully I don’t bleed too much.”
New home
With the help of partners in New Mexico, Licence said, AZGFD biologists captured the prairie dogs in Otero Mesa on Fort Bliss and transported them overnight to the release area.
“We only trap for four days, so they haven’t been in there any more than four days,” he said, pointing to the holding cages. “And we waited for nightfall last night, put them in these covered trucks with the covers down, and shipped them in the cool of the night.”
In the morning, Licence said, the animals were relocated from the holding cages into acclimation cages that have a black tube leading to an artificial nest chamber six feet underground.
Twenty-five artificial burrows were installed on the 40-acre site, which Licence said was chosen because of the rich soil, vegetation and slope of the ground. Though the prairie dogs will be fed and provided water while in the acclimation cages, long grasses on the site will eventually serve as the animals’ food and water source.
He said once they’re accustomed to their new home, the prairie dogs will expand the nest chamber, creating “interlinking networks of tunnels.” The cages surrounding the burrow entries, which protect the animals from predators and prevent them from leaving the area prematurely, will be removed after two weeks.
While AZGFD identified the Sands Ranch area and set up burrows years ago, securing a source population proved to be difficult. License said staff had identified a group in Mexico, but after conducting a genetic study, it was determined the species were too genetically different.
“Unfortunately, black-tails across the U.S. aren’t doing so great, populations are shrinking, so people aren’t willing to give up the prairie dogs they have,” he said. “It took us a little bit to find that source population. But now that we found it, this year we were able to follow through and make this happen.”
Keystone species
Known as a “keystone species,” prairie dogs have a vast effect on the entire ecosystem around them because they clip the vegetation allowing native grasses to grow, recycle nutrients, and their digging activity provides habitats for many other animals, License said.
Licence said biologists hope the project is as successful as it has been in the Las Cienegas area, where he estimated the current population as between 200 and 300 prairie dogs.
Asked if the two populations could meet, Licence said it’s unlikely given the roughly 10-mile distance between Sands Ranch and Las Cienegas.
“Hopefully in time they’ll get big enough to get that close, but as it is now, it’s not likely,” he said. “The maximum dispersal distance for these guys is about five, six max miles, so they’re still a good distance from that.”
In a news release, AZGFD said the first phase of reintroduction can take months and the prairie dogs are regularly monitored during this time.
Why would anyone want them back??
I used to run a water company, and one of our customers had a P-dog as a pet. It was pretty cute!
They’re a big part of the ecosystem in South Dakota, too.
Cattle step in their holes, break their legs and get put down by the farmer.
They built a fenced-in habitat for the Black Footed Ferrets in Montana.
Right in the middle of a prairie dog colony.
The ferrets eat prairie dogs.
The trouble was, they fenced in a coyote with them.
Turns out, coyotes prefer eating ferrets over prairies dogs.
Ate every last ferret.
Rodents
We call it farming.
Prairie dogs on the Rockies don’t have towns. It’s one gigantic prairie dog city covering the whole Range, and they carry the Plague. There aren’t many fleas at high elevations, but the disease can be contracted in other ways (by way of pets, livestock watering equipment,...). That along with deer mice carrying Hantavirus makes for an interesting environment.
Yep.
Which is why some rancher friends of mine will let me shoot them all day long.
And the little PDogs carry the plague.
This is a great idea! Yknow, I was just saying to a friend, “Yknow what we need? A good plague. Not quite biblical but a real challenge for society. Something like bubonic plague.”
Interesting take on prairie rats. The other view is that they eat the roots, destroy the range, and leave holes for all manner of creatures to step into and break their legs.
Fun targets though for a lazy afternoon.
Great shooting is why.
My late cat Abigail used to stand up just like a prairie dog and look around. It was really cute.
The reason I bought my 22-250 ... great shooting and the farmers would put me up for a couple of days.
Interesting critters - they bark at a dog that is a quarter of a mile away but build their homes two feet from a busy street. And then for no logical reason, decide that they need to get to the other side of the busy street.
Interesting critters - they bark at a dog that is a quarter of a mile away but build their homes two feet from a busy street. And then for no logical reason, decide that they need to get to the other side of the busy street.
Indeed. Prairie road pizza ;-)
Exactly. Squashed flat after 100 cars have driven over what is left of them. They might cause an accident, too.
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