How are scientists working to protect the toothless, federally endangered Colorado pikeminnow? Which species is most at risk from the state’s energy production and mining? What’s a piping plover? The answers can be found on Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s new species conservation dashboard, which lists more than 350 sensitive species that call Colorado home and […]
black-footed ferrets
Posted inNews
A Colorado family tried to save their cattle ranch by betting big on rare birds. It’s paying off.
LAMAR — The day that Dallas May started to feel his family ranch’s fortunes solidify, after more than 40 years of raising cattle, was the day he got in his pickup to chase what appeared to be two poachers carrying weapons the size of rocket launchers. It turned out they were international bird experts from […]
Posted inNews
Colorado releases more endangered ferrets into prairie dog holes and hopes for the best
LAMAR — Somewhere between the comforts of a plastic tote outfitted with clean, shredded paper and a bloody quarter of a prairie dog for snacks, and the yawning dark hole he was being tipped into as hawks circled above, North America’s rarest mammal had the genetic weight of the world on its furry shoulders. Black-footed […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News
1st clone of endangered species, a black-footed ferret, is “holding her own” in Fort Collins
10-week-old Elizabeth Ann is being raised at a Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret breeding facility in Fort Collins. She’s a genetic copy of a ferret named Willa who died in 1988.
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
At risk of extinction, black-footed ferrets in Colorado get experimental COVID vaccine
By JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News In late summer, as researchers accelerated the first clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines for humans, a group of scientists in Colorado worked to inoculate a far more fragile species. About 120 black-footed ferrets, among the most endangered mammals in North America, were injected with an experimental COVID vaccine aimed […]