into the wild again

By Rod Haxton, editor

Endangered ferrets making comeback
thanks to Logan Co. recovery project

Angry neighbors and county commissioners waging their battle on Logan County turf and within the courts has drawn most of the headlines in the ongoing Logan County prairie dog war.
However, this isn’t the only story taking place.
In fact, one could easily argue it’s not the biggest story.
What sometimes gets overlooked amidst the controversy is a wildlife success program that is preventing the extinction of an animal species.
Larry Haverfield’s commitment to co-existing with prairie dogs may not be winning him any friends in Logan County, but it’s earned him the respect and gratitude of those connected with preserving the black-footed ferret. The Haverfield ranch has become a prime location for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce endangered ferrets back into the wild.
At one time, black-footed ferret numbers were down to only 18 known to exist in the world. Through a breeding program initiated by the USFWS, and in cooperation with landowners such as Haverfield, more than 7,000 have been born in captivity since the mid 1980s.
About 3,000 have been released into the wild.
Since December of 2007, about 79 ferrets have been located on the land owned by Haverfield and Gordon Barnhardt in southern Logan County. Nearly 30 more have been released on about 2,000 acres of prairie dog inhabited land owned by the Nature Conservancy.
While having prairie dogs and an endangered species claiming residence on thousands of acres of ranch land hasn’t been well-received by several landowners in Logan County, the success of both efforts would appear to be undeniable.
“This isn’t just about ferrets and prairie dogs,” emphasizes Pete Gober, USFWS Black-Footed Recovery coordinator for the U.S. “It’s about all the things that depend on prairie dogs, from the swift fox, to badgers, to hawks and eagles.
“This is an important part of bringing variety to the eco-system. Endless, monotone grassland is not the answer. If you spend any time near a prairie dog town you come to appreciate how many different species of wildlife exist and the amount of activity you find there.”
It’s not as though ferrets are being introduced into a completely foreign environment in hopes they will find success. Kansas, says Gober, was once the “honey hole” of ferrets.
“This was once an incredibly productive prairie eco-system. I wouldn’t doubt there were many, many ferrets and lots and lots of prairie dogs in Kansas in the early days, along with the bison.”

2 Logan County Sites
That’s why sites like the Haverfield-Barnhardt complex, along with the Nature Conservancy, are so critical. They are the only locations in Kansas on which ferrets have been reintroduced.
The reason is simple, ferrets can’t exist without prairie dogs.
“There aren’t many operators like Larry who have the acreage and will tolerate prairie dogs at this level,” Gober says. “Most people will tolerate a few prairie dogs, but for them to be ecologically significant, where you can have ferrets and draw in a lot of hawks or whatever, you can’t accomplish that with 10 or 50 acre tracts. You need a few thousand acres.”
Just as critical to the program’s success is the rotational cell grazing system that is unique to the Haverfield/Barnhardt operation. This creates a better environment where prairie dogs don’t just survive, but can thrive.
Has the success of the ferret program met or exceeded expectations?
“I really didn’t know what to expect,” says Dan Mulhern, a biologist with the USFWS in Manhattan. “I hadn’t been involved with the ferret project nationally until it got started (in Logan County). But I didn’t expect it to go this well biologically.”

Started in 2007
Bringing ferrets back to this part of the country has been nearly as controversial as Haverfield’s willingness to allow prairie dogs to exist on nearly 6,000 acres of ranch land.
Neighboring landowners who were already upset that no effort was being made to control prairie dogs only became more disenchanted with the prospect of an endangered species wandering onto their land. Those concerns, and anger, were evident at a public meeting in Oakley, back in 2005, when the ferret program was first being proposed.
Thinking back to that meeting, Haverfield remembers the negative feedback when he declared that he liked having prairie dogs on his land.
“We might have overdone it then,” he says with a laugh. “But no one was listening as to why we liked them.”
And it’s not as though the USFWS hasn’t been sensitive to those concerns.
“The people who don’t want prairie dogs on their property have some pretty legitimate concerns about forage competition,” acknowledges Mulhern.
In order to be “good neighbors” the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, the Nature Conservancy and the USDA Wildlife Services have helped fund prairie dog control measures on property surrounding the Haverfield/Barnhardt land and the Nature Conservancy.
“One of the big concerns initially was that this would become a source of prairie dogs immigrating onto the neighboring land,” acknowledges Mulhern. “That’s a natural process because this land will only support so many prairie dogs, so they have to go somewhere.”
It was decided early on that in order to maintain the ferret program, the USFWS and other agencies would have to work at controlling prairie dogs “relieve some of the political and social pressure.”
Mulhern feels their efforts have helped to appease most neighbors.
“I think the neighbors are pretty happy to have us come out and kill prairie dogs for free,” Mulhern says.

Numbers on the Rise
Prairie dog concerns have overshadowed the success of the ferret reintroduction program. Following an initial placement in late 2007, small numbers were released in three phases during 2008 and, most recently, this past November. A survey in September found 44 ferrets, with two more discovered shortly afterwards.
Gober feels the ferret population has proven capable of sustaining itself and should continue to grow.
A rule of thumb is about 100 acres of prairie dogs per female ferret. While the Haverfield-Barnhardt site is considered on the small end when it comes to maintaining a ferret program, it is felt that at least 30 adult breeding animals can thrive at this location.
“We’re looking for a population of about 3,000 ferrets across the entire West to get them off the endangered species list,” Gober says.
USFWS is about one-third of the way toward reaching that goal.
Having gone from 18 in the world to about 1,000 in the wild has been a significant step. When one considers where they started, and where they are today, reaching a goal of 3,000 “doesn’t seem so daunting,” says Gober. “It’s just a matter of having a place to put them.”

Introducing Ferrets
Because they are nocturnal, when black-footed ferrets are reintroduced into the wild it must be done at dusk.
They are typically kept in portable cages with one ferret per cage.
“You can’t even have the cage doors facing each other or the ferrets will attack one another,” says Gober.
The cages were placed at the entrance to a prairie dog burrow and, eventually, they were “encouraged” to exit the comfort of the cage and enter their new home in the wild. When ferrets are released most will disappear into a burrow.
“Others will run around your feet for awhile and you’re thinking ‘there’s no way they’re going to survive,’” says Gober.
The ferrets are raised with prairie dogs in captivity, in conditions that simulate what it is like in the wild, in order to improve their rate of survival.
When released into the wild, ferrets are typically about two feet long and weigh about two pounds.
Wildlife officials have learned through observing the process by which ferrets attack their prey that prairie dogs will sleep in a burrow with their head tucked into their chest. The ferret will literally tap the prairie dog on the chest and when the prairie dog looks up the ferret will sink its teeth into the throat.
The ferrets released in November were born last spring and will be adult breeders this coming spring. A female ferret will generally have 2-4 offspring, so if half of the ferrets survive it’s enough to maintain a steady population.
The Haverfield ranch is one of 19 release sites for ferrets located in eight states, plus Canada and Mexico. The USFWS would like to establish sites in North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, but those states have been holdouts so far.
Outside of natural predators, the biggest risk to ferrets and their prairie dog prey is the plague which can decimate prairie dog and ferret populations.
“We’ve been fortunate that it hasn’t happened here,” says Haverfield. “You hope it’s something we can avoid, but you know in the back of your mind it’s probably only a matter of time.”
“We didn’t have (the plague) in South Dakota for several decades so we thought there must be something ecologically that was limiting the spread into that area. But it eventually did come in. So it may not be a question of if, but when, it happens here,” says Gober.
He says a vaccine has been developed to protect prairie dogs from the plague, but it hasn’t yet been approved for use in the field. Gober is hopeful that could lead to an effective and cheaper means of protecting prairie dog and ferret populations.
However, what’s happening on the Haverfield ranch goes beyond ferrets and prairie dogs.
Audubon of Kansas conducted a wildlife survey this fall during which they traveled more than 900 miles of roads throughout Western Kansas. During a brief visit to the Haverfield ranch they discovered 24 Ferruginous Hawks and two golden eagles, along with numerous other species of birds.
Ferruginous Hawks feast on prairie dogs. The only other one found in Western Kansas was at Prairie Dog State Park, near Norton.
“One doesn’t gain an appreciation for the unique aspect of what’s happening on the Haverfield/Barnhardt ranching operation until they can witness it first-hand,” adds Mulhern. “What Larry and Gordon have managed to do is create one of the most diverse eco-systems on the High Plains.”