When an outbreak of sylvatic plague decimated black-tailed prairie dog numbers in the Thunder Basin National Grassland in 2017, researchers saw an opportunity to explore the impact of the rodents’ die-off on the plants and other wildlife in that area of northeast Wyoming. The results were astounding, showing how a keystone species plays a critical […]
Tag: Black-tailed prairie dog
Fertilizer: one of the three major drivers of biodiversity loss this century
The world’s grasslands are being destabilized by fertilization, according to a paper recently published in the journal Nature. In a study of 41 grassland communities on five continents, researchers found that the presence of fertilizer weakened grassland species diversity. The researchers surveyed grasslands in countries around the world, such as China, the U.S., Switzerland, Tanzania […]
Protected Species May be Killed by Proposed Prairie Dog Control, Environmental Groups Charge
(Washington, D.C., October 16 , 2012) Defenders of Wildlife, American Bird Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Audubon of Kansas have urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reject an application by Scimetrics to use the rodenticide Kaput-D for the control of black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, […]