Prairie night : black-footed ferrets and the recovery of endangered species /

With an inquisitive, intelligent face and rounded ears like a mouse's, the black-footed ferret, the most endangered mammalian species in North America, might well be the poster child for the Endangered Species Act. The authors, drawing on their years of experience working to keep these animals from becoming extinct‘Miller has been involved with programs for the captive breeding and reintroduction of black-footed ferrets; Reading is a conservationist with the U.N.; Forrest is a consulting biologist in Montana‘relate conservation strategies specific to ferrets while generalizing to examine what this case study might teach us about saving threatened wildlife more broadly. Of significant interest is their discussion of the political infighting between state and federal officials, dissension that compromises aspects of the captive breeding program and dramatically increases costs. On the biological front, the authors make an articulate case for habitat preservation. Since black-footed ferrets rely almost exclusively on black-tailed prairie dogs for food, prairie dog towns must be protected if the ferrets are to survive, they stress. Yet, ironically, another arm of the federal government spends millions of dollars to eradicate prairie dogs. Although intended to be accessible to a general audience, at times the writing here is too technical and dry to be fully effective. Photos. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A surprisingly readable treatise on the black-footed ferret recovery program, by three members of the program staff. Listed as an endangered species, the secretive black-footed ferret had been reduced to a minuscule wild population in Wyoming by 1985, the year a captive-propagation effort swung into action. Miller, Reading, and Forrest gather here the fruits of that project. In a text by turns semiscientific and semipopular, they cover ferret courtship, child-rearing and home life, boundary marking, aggression, and predation. They chart the reasons behind the ferrets' decline: poisoning of prairie dog populations (the sole food of the ferret), disease, habitat destruction. The authors outline the recovery program, from measuring the population to trapping to captive-breeding husbandry to release techniques. All of this is presented in extraordinary detail, be it copulation positions or the way in which a ferret goes about eating a prairie dog. Then they probe the other side of conservation biology: organization structure, legal and technical aspects of the program, the range of personnel necessary (public relations professionals, economists, social scientists, and, yes, pure scientists). And they conduct an autopsy on the failed, or at least frustrated, elements of the effort: the conflicts between the state of Wyoming and the feds, the ego problems among the participants, entrenched public attitudes, the absurdity of the US government paying ranchers to poison prairie dogs and billing taxpayers to save the ferret. There is plenty of hard science here, but the book is leavened with affectingly drawn passages following the progression of a ferret's life. Best of all, the authors provide a blueprint illuminating the complexities of such an effort, certain to be of great use to future recovery programs. The ferret couldn't have asked for three more caring, perceptive champions of their cause.