Prairie Night: Black-Footed Ferrets and the Recovery of Endangered Species

Once abundant throughout the grassland prairie that stretches from Canada to Mexico, black-footed ferrets today are North America's most endangered mammal. Totally dependent upon prairie dogs for food and shelter, black-footed ferrets fell victim to their own evolutionary specialization when prairie dog colonies were targeted for eradication because they were thought to interfere with ranching. An unparalleled campaign of poisoning, begun in the first half of this century, reduced prairie dogs to 2 percent of their original range. Black-footed ferrets, animals that once coexisted with hundreds of millions of prairie dogs, were thought by 1979 to be extinct.
An insider's critique of endangered-species policy in action, Prairie Night combines an understanding of the biology and natural history of the black-footed ferret with a record of the often controversial decisions on how to save it. In the early 1980s, biologists discovered a few remaining ferrets in the wild. The authors, all of whom worked for many years on ferret recovery programs, describe the turf wars that erupted among state, federal, and private groups over whether and how to intervene.
The fate of the black-footed ferret remains in question - especially as programs to poison prairie dogs continue at the government's expense. Capturing the full scope of the issue, this book reveals that it involves the survival of an ecosystem and the future of endangered-species policy.