7 July 2008

Friends and colleagues-

The battle against plague in Conata Basin continues. It appears that
as much as 9,000 acres of the 31,000 acres of prairie dogs may be
affected. We won't know until late fall how much the black-footed
ferret population has been impacted. By that time I will have completed
my counts of BFFs and we will have a more accurate assessment of the
damage done by plague.

I continue to lead a small crew in capturing BFFs for vaccination by
the National Wildlife Health Center. If we don't capture these BFFs
they will not be vaccinated. To date we have captured and vaccinated 43
adult BFFs. We will capture and vaccinate the kits eventually but right
now they are not big enough to capture and many remain below ground.
By mid-August we will be capturing kits. Other crews continue to dust
prairie dog burrows to kill fleas which can spread plague. It is a
laborious task that will persist throughout the summer.

The support we have received thus far from the public as well as
organizations and agencies has been overwhelming and encouraging.
More than $7,000 in donations/BFF adoptions have poured in during the
last month. Along with support from World Wildlife Fund, The Nature
Conservancy, International Ferret Congress, Toronto Zoo, American
Association of Zookeepers Louisville Zoo, SeaWorld & Busch Gardens
Conservation Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, and US Forest
Service we have raised more than $37,000 to protect black-footed
ferrets in Conata Basin! We thank you all! I really want to thank
all of you FMLers for your support, prayers and kind words! The
fundraisers by Robin, Rose, Fran and others have been awesome and I
hope someday I can do the same to help out your ferrets.

I will continue to send updates and you can also visit my blog
<http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/critter-blog/ferret-field-blog/livieri-default.aspx>
to read about the daily battle against plague. You can also
read a little story about the first BFF kits of the season (in the
wild). And definitely go check out the BFF webcam
(http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/SmallMammals/) at Smithsonian's
National Zoo and the newly named (by YOU!) Peanut. And a reminder that
donations for Peanut can be sent to Linda Iroff via PayPal
([log in to unmask]). Proceeds go to support the BFF
reproduction program at Smithsonian's National Zoo (Peanut is a product
of artificial insemination by Dr. JoGayle Howard) and Prairie Wildlife
Research.

Again, my sincere thanks.
Travis Livieri
Prairie Wildlife Research

P.S. Alexandra, I have been properly de-flead and de-loused. It took
a while (that Frontline is good stuff, thanks Dr. Murray!) but I'm
squeaky clean now :-)

[Posted in FML 6025]