Ten black-footed ferrets were reintroduced by Arizona Game and Fish into the Aubrey Valley and Double O Ranch area of Coconino and Yavapai counties. It’s the first time in more than 15 years that the department has attempted to successfully bring the species back into Arizona.
The department made similar recovery efforts in the early 2000s, but years later, it began to notice a steep decline in population. Scientists tracked the problem to a bacterial disease that prairie dogs carry.
Prairie dogs are hunted by black-footed ferrets, and while they’re able to live with the disease, the ferrets are not. Prior to their release, the ferrets were vaccinated for the disease to increase their recovery chances.
Holly Hicks is a biologist at the department. She said that the ferrets hunting prairie dogs helps with overpopulation, something that can reduce the spread of disease to other animals and help Arizona farmers.
“They don’t want to see these populations being too high because they feel that it’s a competition with the forage for their cattle,” Hicks said.
Hicks added that this will be the first of six ferret releases over the next three, years with two more to happen in April 2025. She also said that the department is the first of four groups in the country to successfully release them into the wild.
-
Activists have spent the last 70 days camped around and inside a cottonwood tree right along the border in the tiny town of Lochiel. The tree was the last of an old grove estimated to be up to 250 years old. -
Hunters and hikers were among almost 133,000 people opposing potential changes to the Travel Management Rule in national forests. Snowmobile groups were in the minority. -
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a measure out of its upper chamber that would transform the Chiricahua National Monument into the Grand Canyon State’s newest national park. -
Back in March, the U.S. Forest Service transferred ownership of more than 2,400 acres to Resolution Copper — following a 2-1 ruling by a panel of 9th Circuit judges that legally cleared the way for the land exchange to be finalized. -
The partner organizations were planning conservation or cultural resource projects in parks across the Mountain West.
