They sound like chipmunks or cactus wrens, but the rapid fire chattering of black-footed ferrets hasn’t been heard naturally on Arizona grasslands since 1931. Some call the reintroduction of 26 ferrets to the Babbitt Ranches’ Espee Ranch on Oct. 1 “personal” and “magical.” Some call it a “milestone” after years of wildlife agencies, conservation organizations, tribes and private landowners working together. Bill Cordasco calls it the result of values.
Cordasco, president of Babbitt Ranches, says everything the land company does, whether mining gravel, harvesting wind, studying climate, shipping cattle or returning an endangered species to its natural habitat, has to do with Babbitts’ land ethics and conservation principles fitting under its fundamental framework of doing what is right for the family organization, the economics of business, the environment and the broader community.
“It is through these values that meaningful relationships are formed, community is built, and outstanding research projects can be conducted,” said Cordasco. “The cornerstone of everything Babbitt does is ‘Cowboy Essence,’ which means being your best.”
Cordasco is quick to point out that you do not have to be a cowboy to have cowboy essence. For example, leading up to the release of black-footed ferrets into the wild, a lot of focused and dedicated groundwork had to be done by hundreds of individuals across the country.
One important component of the successful reintroduction effort involved scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Under the direction of veterinarian Dr. Jonathan Sleeman, researchers have been tenaciously developing a vaccine to guard prairie dogs from the sylvatic plague.
“Black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs, which are the most important prey base for black-footed ferrets, are both very susceptible to plague,” says Sleeman. “So what we’ve been developing over the past 10 years or so is a vaccine that we could distribute out in the environment to give to prairie dogs so that we could protect them and vaccinate them against plague and hopefully protect the prairie dogs as well as the ferrets.”
The infectious sylvatic plague is caused by the same organism responsible for bubonic and pneumonic plague in humans. Sylvatic, or sylvan, means “occurring in wildlife,” and refers specifically to the form of plague that affects rodents. It is primarily transmitted through flea bites.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Keim says the bacterium interferes with the flea’s digestive system. “It doesn’t allow the blood meal to get to its stomach so the insect is starving and jumping from animal to animal to try to satisfy its hunger. At the same time, the infected blood is being injected into the animal with each flea bite, and that’s how it spreads.”
Wildlife biologist Bill Van Pelt, grasslands coordinator with the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, has been involved in releasing a number of endangered species into the wild, including the Mexican wolf, the California condor and now the black-footed ferret. He and a team of biologists arranged to have the 26 ferrets transported from the Ferret Conservation Center in Wellington, Colorado, where they were raised in captivity and trained to hunt.
“The black-footed ferret thrived within the prairie dog colonies for centuries and then in 1905, the bubonic plague was introduced into the country from the ships coming in to port there in California,” he said. “It got into the wild population and spread eastward then. It just decimated the prairie dog populations. They don’t have a natural immunity and so they die off. Since the prairie dog is the primary prey for the black-footed ferret, the ferret lost its prey base.”
The weasel-like creature with the tan face, black rings around its eyes, sharp teeth and long tail was thought to be extinct twice. But in 1981, a small colony of 120 black-footed ferrets was found in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Disease outbreaks then reduced the population to 18, rendering it the most endangered mammal in North America. The ferrets were captured and protected. Today, all of the 500 existing black-footed ferrets are descendants of the surviving 18.
Before the vaccination was created, wildlife managers on foot or ATVs dusted prairie dog colonies with a dust gun, shooting insecticide into one burrow at a time to kill fleas that may carry disease. Drawbacks included the widespread use of chemicals and the expense. USGS Associate Director for Ecosystem Science, Anne Kinsinger, who oversees 16 science centers from Alaska and Hawaii to Florida, says the biggest challenge with vaccinating prairie dogs is that they spend a lot of time underground.
“We knew we had to bring the vaccine to them rather than us trying to find them,” she said. “So we experimented with a lot of different flavors including blueberry and several other ones and we found they vastly prefer peanut butter. So that’s why we developed the vaccine the way we did, so it would be something they would actively seek out rather than us trying to capture them and vaccinate them manually.”
So now, like a prairie dog hors d’oeuvre, the peanut butter flavored vaccine-laced cracker has been delivered like room service to the animals’ burrows on the Espee Ranch northwest of Valle.
For additional protection, the 26 ferrets were vaccinated against plague before being released. Each ferret is expected to live in the prairie dog dens and eat a prairie dog a week, as did their ancestors.
This historic release of the endangered ferrets to a private working ranch is the first in Arizona under a special federal conservation tool in the Endangered Species Act called the Safe Harbor Agreement. It allows private landowners to conserve endangered species on their property with minimal land-use restrictions. Land managers typically regard prairie dogs as a risk to livestock because the burrows they dig are tripping hazards to cows and horses. In addition, the existence of an endangered species on property can require regulations that may impede business operations.
“A Safe Harbor Agreement allows ranchers to participate in species recovery while simplifying and guaranteeing certainty for their business options in the future,” said Steve Spangle, Arizona field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Milestones like this release of endangered ferrets onto private land are significant accomplishments on the road to meeting Arizona’s – and national – recovery goals. It’s a true demonstration of the power of cooperative wildlife conservation because ferret recovery would never have been possible without our partners at Babbitt Ranches, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Phoenix Zoo, Navajo National and others,” said Larry Voyles, director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Steven Carothers of SWCA Environmental Consultants, who works with Babbitt Ranches to develop and implement conservation programs for the land company’s three ranches in Northern Arizona, commends Babbitt Ranches for their efforts.
“What we’re trying to do with Babbitt Ranches is to balance human use of the land with conservation of its natural resources and keep all of the values. Not only are we interested in water and open spaces, but we’re interested in protecting endangered species like the black-footed ferret,” he said. “It’s a real balancing act to be able to realize economic values and achieve conservation at the same time. While we have federal and state wildlife management agencies, it is the private landowner who drives the system. And if you’re going to work with Billy Cordasco, you better be ready to listen and you better listen carefully because he’s got some incredible ideas. It’s very much to his credit, along with the owners and employees of Babbitt Ranches, that 26 black-footed ferrets are being released here.”
Monitoring how well the animals are surviving is Black-footed Ferret Project Wildlife Specialist Jennifer Cordova with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. She plans to search for the nocturnal ferrets during a full moon this month.
“The ferrets are said to be more active around the full moon, so we’ll come out in November and spotlight for a few nights,” said Cordova. “We use high-powered spotlights to find them and they have a brilliant, brilliant green eye shine. Hopefully we’ll recapture some of these guys to make sure they’re still alive.”
For Terry Johnson, who began his career 30 years ago as the first endangered species and non-game endangered wildlife branch chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the ferret release has become a professional and personal mission. “This is kind of a full circle for me. Bill Cordasco reached into his heart and said, ‘Let’s make this happen.’”
With his granddaughters looking on, Johnson, the sylvatic plague coordinator for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, opened the cage for the first ferret to explore its new world on Espee Ranch.
“It’s a magical moment,” he said.
By Bonnie Stevens
Flagstaff Business News