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Santa Fe, NM – Citing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to consider federal protection for the Gunnison’s prairie dog, WildEarth Guardians and other conservation groups moved forward yesterday with action under the Endangered Species Act. While the Service pledged its commitment to ecosystem protection over a decade ago, the agency is avoiding protective actions for the Gunnison’s prairie dog, although its federal protection would safeguard prairie dog ecosystems. There is growing recognition among scientists that one important way to address the mounting extinction crisis is to protect particular plants and wildlife whose conservation benefits associated species.

“The Bush Administration is turning its back on the declining Gunnison’s prairie dog and is flouting an opportunity to safeguard the many wildlife and plants associated with prairie dog towns,” said Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. “Time is a luxury the Gunnison’s prairie dog cannot afford,” she continued.

Partly out of recognition that protecting prairie dogs will safeguard whole ecosystems, conservation of the Gunnison’s prairie dogs has broad support among people from many different walks of life. Among the 71 groups and individuals who joined onto WildEarth Guardians’ petition to list the Gunnison’s prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act were realtors, homebuilders, private landowners, retired military officials, religious organizations, and scientists.

According to the groups, protection delays can cause further decline and even extinction. Because the species is not federally protected, Gunnison’s habitat continues to be destroyed due to reckless oil and gas drilling on public lands, individual Gunnison’s prairie dogs suffer unrestricted shooting in much of their range, and the federal government continues to poison prairie dogs at taxpayer expense. A 2004 report from the Center for Biological Diversity (based on Service data) found that, from 1973-1995, some 83 species for which federal protection was long delayed, went extinct.

“The Endangered Species Act provides a vital safety net for our nation’s wildlife and plants,” said Rosmarino. She continued, “The Gunnison’s prairie dog, and the landscape of life it creates, desperately needs that safety net.”

Also supporting federal protection for the Gunnison’s prairie dog is Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, who has pioneered research over the past two decades demonstrating a prairie dog language system which distinguishes between types of predators, specific characteristics of humans, and indicates learning and memory.

“Our findings on the complexity of prairie dog communications should inspire us to take a second look at this animal. Rather than viewing prairie dogs as varmints, it’s time to recognize that they are fascinating and important components of the natural landscape,” stated Dr. Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University.

WildEarth Guardians is a regional conservation organization whose mission is to preserve and restore native wildlands and wildlife in the American Southwest. Other conservation organizations who filed the complaint are the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Native Ecosystems, and the Utah Environmental Congress. For more information on the Gunnison’s prairie dog, and to obtain the complaint or listing petition, call 505-699-7404.

Background Information

Other endangered species for which the conservation groups are seeking Endangered Species Act protection through the complaint are the Dakota skipper (an imperiled butterfly), Black Hills mountainsnail, and Uinta mountainsnail. All three are considered indicator species, whose imperilment signals declining health of the ecosystems in which they are found.

Gunnison’s prairie dogs have declined by over 90% across their range, due to historic and current poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague, and habitat destruction. Over the past several years, plague has devastated prairie dog populations across large areas in northern Arizona. Habitat destruction has resulted in prairie dog acreage reductions in Flagstaff, AZ and Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos, NM. Rampant shooting of Gunnison’s prairie dogs occurs in Colorado and escalating oil and gas development is eroding remaining prairie dog habitat in several states.

Prairie dogs are keystone species, which play an especially important role in their ecosystems by creating habitat and providing a prey base for a wide variety of predators. For example, black-footed ferrets are among the most endangered mammals on earth, and that imperiled status is traced directly to prairie dog declines. Ferrets cannot survive in the wild outside of prairie dog towns and over 90% of their diet is prairie dogs.

WildEarth Guardians’ petition documents threats from plague, shooting, poisoning, and habitat destruction (on both private and public lands) throughout the four-state range of the Gunnison’s prairie dog. Among the petition’s key findings: Extreme threat of plague: 2000s outbreak of plague has devastated populations in northern Arizona & 80% of plague cases in the U.S. are within Gunnison’s range;

Lack of government protections: the largest population of Gunnison’s prairie dogs, in which black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced, is unprotected;

Rampant shooting in Colorado: Over 200,000 prairie dogs were shot in 2002 alone.

Government participation in poisoning: federal Wildlife Services, National Park Service, and state agricultural agencies continue to poison Gunnison’s prairie dogs.

Massive threat from oil and gas: over 300,000 acres have been offered by federal agencies for lease within range of Gunnison’s prairie dog just since 2002.

The Gunnison’s prairie dog is one of five species of prairie dog, all of which are native to North America. The other four prairie dog species have been listed under the Endangered Species Act or have been petitioned for listing. The Gunnison’s prairie dog occurs in the four corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Three-quarters of its range occurs in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Bush Administration has a track record of forestalling listing of imperiled species. While President Clinton listed 65 species a year during his administration, and President George H.W. Bush listed 59 species per year, the George W. Bush Administration has listed only 31 species over 4 years, and all of these were under court order.