Federals Put Prairie Dog
Protection On Back Burner

CHEYENNE, Wyo. —(AP)— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether the black-tailed prairie dog is an endangered species, but not as quickly as a national wildlife group wants.

The National Wildlife Federation last month petitioned the government, requesting an emergency listing of the rodent as an endangered species.

But Fish and Wildlife has decided the animal is not so rare that great losses would result in extinction. The agency said last week that it will decide by November if the prairie dog's declining numbers merit a full study.

Dan Chu, regional organizer for the wildlife federation, said the decision was not surprising.

"It's hard to make the argument that they are going to disappear tomorrow," Chu said. "We're disappointed, but we're not surprised."

The group said in its petition to Fish and Wildlife that the prairie dog is disappearing because of development. The rodent ranges in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

The petition applies only to the black-tailed prairie dog. Its more common white-tailed cousin is declining, too, but not as quickly.

Environmentalists say if prairie dogs disappear, so will the burrows they share with other animals. Prairie dogs are also an important source of food for predators such as the swift fox, mountain plover, some hawks and the burrowing owl.

And they are prey for the black-footed ferret, which Fish and Wildlife is trying to save from extinction through a captive-breeding program and releases in the wild.

Farmers, ranchers and developers say the prairie dogs are a nuisance and should be poisoned, shot, or relocated before they spread disease and cause damage to crops and livestock.

The state of Wyoming has not taken a position for or against the proposal, according to Reg Rothwell, supervisor of biological services for the state Game and Fish Department.

Several economic and political obstacles stand in the way of the species' recovery, he said.

"Private landowners are going to be the ones holding the bag on this thing," he said. "Seventy percent of the black-tailed prairie dogs in Wyoming are on private land."

"The controversy surrounding the (black-tailed) prairie dog is going to make the wolf and the grizzly bear controversies seem like a cake walk, believe me," Rothwell added.