I would like to make you aware of a book I just read about black-footed
ferrets and recovery of endangered species.  The book is:
 
Prairie Night: black-footed ferrets and the recovery of endangered species
Brian Miller, Richard P. Reading, Steve Forrest, Smithsonian Institution Press
 
The book covers black-footed ferret biology and behaviour, ecosystems in
which the black-footed ferret is involved, factors leading to their near
extinction, and, importantly, nonbiological factors contributing to success
or failure of reintroduction efforts (such as government agency(ies')
organization, attitudes, and conflicts and public attitudes).
 
Since this is not a black-footed ferret list I will not go into detail here
about the interesting and highly critical treatment provided by the authors,
except to whet your whistle by (a) recalling that the authors point out the
contradiction and conflict of government supported prairie dog poisoning in
conjunction with government supported black-footed ferret recovery efforts,
and by (b) noting that our domestic ferrets share some behaviour, charisma,
and physical characteristics with black-footed ferrets.
 
The book does NOT address, as far as I remember, the charged discussions
which appeared on this list about the handling of sick and old black-footed
ferrets.
 
The book is written in what I would call college-level English.  The authors
go somewhat into the scientific study, but they balance that with a few
literary tricks to make the book less dry than pure scientific study, and
they devote a great deal of time to straightforward (if scholarly)
discussion of nonbiological aspects of conservation.  They spend quite a bit
of time supporting and presenting a general prescription for how to organize
future recovery efforts for maximal success, leaning on the lessons learned
with black-footed ferrets.
 
They do speak generally and analytically about the recent reintroductions
and the challenges encountered, but I was hoping for a little more
discussion (and some casual storytelling) about the reintroductions.
 
I give it a thumbs up if you like to read fairly scholarly treatments of
issues like this.
 
Todd Cromwell
Dors (the huntress of small plastic bottles), Seldon (the hunter of dreams)
[Posted in FML issue 1889]