It's Not Too Late For the Black-Footed Ferret

Not too late...yet.  You hear a lot of people around this area (notably cattle farmers and real estate developers) complain about prairie dogs (cattle break their legs in the little dogs' burrows and it's expensive and inconvenient to kill them and clear their little towns).  But why did prairie dog populations spike in recent decades anyway?  An ecosystem exists in a very sensitive balance and needs all its players to maintain it: take away the predators and this is what happens.  Hopefully this species can make a successful comeback, 18 individuals the unsuspecting Adams and Eves in their own Genesis project.

If You Meet A Mountain Lion

...chances are it's already had some bad encounters with humanity and it's not going to be happy to see you.  Protect yourself if you need to, but be respectful of the animal as an individual with its own motives and possibly its own family to protect.  (Parents come in all species.)

Some photos taken in the Wildlife section of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  What do you think?  IS there room for human people and the rest of the animal kindgom?  There could be.  The potential is there.  But with SEVEN BILLION humans on the planet and limited resources to begin with, it's up to us to find ethical solutions to live peacefully with other living things and we're doing a horrible job.

Increasing impact.  Uncontrolled slaughter.  Relentless slaughter.  Reduced habitat.  Near extinction.  Gone forever.  Completely vanished.

In the shadow of man?

This is a photo of a tiny prairie dog community on 104th Ave, next to the Albertson's chain grocery store.  This is one of the lucky little groups who have only been rounded up into an 'open space'.  Many are gassed to death in their little homes for the convenience of humans' urban sprawl and the clearing of grazing land.

Read more about prairie dog management and human reasons for exterminating them HERE.  I especially recommend the last article on the list from the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, dated 3 years ago.  I believe putting beef producers (and for that matter, oil companies) in charge of any part of wildlife welfare is unethical; in this particular case, these are people who "represent the interest of Colorado's cattle industry".  While I agree that they have their own interests to look after in this situation, where are the folk representing the interests of the ferrets and prairie dogs?  Someone completely outside the beef industry needs some level of jurisdiction; what is to stop the cattle ranchers from killing the white-tailed dogs as well if there is no one to regulate them?  Regular bi-monthly surveys of prairie dog habitats on beef producers' lands by government consultants should be mandatory.  In the meantime, the ghost of the black footed ferret haunts the hapless cattle in their pastures, while prairie dog populations are checked only by humans' whose best interest is to exterminate them.

Here are some other links:

Contest Kills

Seekers of the Red Mist

Listen my dears, and listen closely.  So that you can enjoy all the convenience and comfort of your modern day life of iPhones and fast food wrappers, others (and by others, I mean other species and your own kind) must thin out and die out, or live with the inconveniences.  Think about that and how disconnected we are from what is really happening outside our computers and television sets.  And have the humility to feel guilty.